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Page 2ÊUÊÕ}ÕÃÌÊ£ä]ÊÓä£ÓÊUÊ*>ÊÌÊ7iiÞÊUÊÜÜÜ°*>Ì"i°V

Upfront

Local news, information and analysis

Police: Wildfires caused by arsonist
Suspicious man detained, released; investigation continues
by Sue Dremann and Jocelyn Dong
n arsonist is suspected of set- a man walking in the area of the
ting five wildfires that burned fires after a passing bicyclist re4 acres of Pearson Arastrade- ported him to a firefighter, the poro Preserve in the Palo Alto hills lice stated in a press release ThursWednesday afternoon, Aug. 8, day. The man was released pending
sending up plumes of white smoke further investigation into the cause
that could be seen for miles and re- of the fire, but police and fire ofquiring both helicopter and aircraft ficials have determined that “five
to quell the blaze.
small fires in the same immediate
Palo Alto police officers detained area had been intentionally set.”

A

Detectives said Thursday that
they would like the bicyclist to contact the department to give a more
detailed statement.
The fires were reported in the
grasslands of the wooded preserve
west of Interstate 280 at 4:08 p.m.
and came within about 200 feet of
a horse ranch on the adjacent Stanford University campus. No structures were threatened, and no one
was injured.
Madeleine Todd, the owner of

three horses at Portola Pastures,
reported the fire after she noticed
smoke and flames from four separate blazes, she said.
Todd said she was checking on her
horses at the time. The fire was near
the parking lot of Palo Alto University on Arastradero Road, she said.
Todd said she saw three, equally
spaced fires near the road. A fourth,
a larger blaze, was farther in the
grass up a hill near a trail.
When she called in the fire, people

were still biking and jogging along
the road. The fires had probably
been burning for 10 to 15 minutes,
she said.
“It was so big by the time the fire
trucks got here, there was lots of
smoke and about 15-foot flames.
It took down a couple of trees,” she
said.
She and Portola Pastures manager
Jose Ruelas were on alert in case
(continued on page 11)

ELECTION 2012

Ken Dauber
enters school
board race
Fourth candidate vying
for three seats, seeks ‘open
community discussion’
by Chris Kenrick
arent activist Ken Dauber
announced Tuesday, Aug. 7,
he will run for the Palo Alto
Board of Education in this November’s election, injecting some competition into the race.
The Google software engineer
and cofounder of the group We
Can Do Better Palo Alto will vie
for one of three available seats on
the five-member board against incumbents Melissa Baten Caswell
and Camille Townsend and newcomer Heidi Emberling.
The election is Nov. 6.
“I want to ensure that there is a
contested election so that we have
the opportunity to have a full and
open community discussion of our
values and priorities for our schools,”
Dauber said in a statement.
“I am particularly interested
in bringing to the school board
clearer and more transparent decision making backed by data and
agreed-upon metrics. ... I will work
to bring my experience in educational data and large, complex
organizations to bear on bringing
more effective governance to the
board,” he said.
Dauber and his wife, Stanford
Law School Professor Michele
Dauber, burst onto the school scene
early last year, criticizing Superintendent Kevin Skelly and the
school board and calling for “new
leadership” in the Palo Alto Unified
School District.
The two founded We Can Do Better Palo Alto, which has 165 Facebook followers and has doggedly
lobbied the school board on issues
relating to academic stress.
Between April and June of this

P

Veronica Weber

A firefighter lays down red tape around one of the sites where five fires were started at the Pearson Arastradero Preserve on Aug. 8.

EMERGENCY RESPONSE

Fire districts revving up
cross-border aid
Palo Alto and Menlo Park personnel will respond to
fires within each others’ service areas
by Sue Dremann
hen a wildfire ignited
grasslands in Pearson
Arastradero Preserve on
Wednesday afternoon, the various
city and county fire departments
that responded ignored their usual
boundaries.
Multiple fire agencies, includ-

W

ing Palo Alto’s and Menlo Park’s,
battled five blazes that could
have harmed people and property
had the response not been rapid.
Pastures that contain about 155
horses are just 200 feet from the
burned area, and the hills are
surrounded by homes in Portola
Valley and Los Altos.

The joint attack is one example
of how fire responses will look
in the near future due to expanding automatic-aid agreements.
One year ago, the Palo Alto City
Council unanimously approved
a new arrangement between the
Palo Alto and Menlo Park fireprotection districts in which engines and personnel in closest
proximity to a fire or emergency
will respond — regardless of jurisdiction.
The agreement covers Code 3
incidents, which require a siren
and red flashing lights. Paramedic
services are not included.
Although the two agencies
have cooperated since 1999, the
updated arrangement will ensure
that one truck company and a

battalion chief from each agency
will be present on the scene, allowing for better direction for
personnel. The departments are
also looking at ways to meld their
communications and dispatch
systems.
Menlo Park Fire Chief Harold Schapelhouman said the
2010 plane crash into an East
Palo Alto residential neighborhood brought to light the need
for a new agreement. Confusion
among the various departments
responding to the incident led to
his initiation of discussions with
Palo Alto, he said.
The main reason for the agreement is maximum protection for
(continued on page 7)

Government works more efficiently
if we all work together.
â&#x20AC;&#x201D;Harold Schapelhouman, Menlo Park fire chief,
on the new mutual-aid pact between Palo Alto and
Menlo Park fire departments. See story on page 3.

Around Town
MUSIC TO THEIR EARS ... Lytton
Plaza has long served as Palo Altoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
prime meeting ground for the discontent masses, from the Vietnam War
protests in the 1960s to the demonstration against the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s freshly
passed noise ordinance in the 1970s.
But a musician looking to blast an
angry riff on her electric guitar may
soon have a new set of rules to follow. The Parks and Recreation Commission is expected to approve an
ordinance later this month that would
set time limits for amplified music.
The proposal is far less drastic than
the one the commission reviewed
and rejected in October, which would
have prohibited amplified sound
unless the user takes out a $300
permit. The latest proposal would
limit amplified sound to 5 to 10 p.m.
Monday through Thursday, from 5
to 11 p.m. on Friday, from noon to 11
p.m. on Saturday and from noon to
10 p.m. on Sunday. Those who honor
these hours can blast music for free
on a first-come, first-serve basis. Amplified sound would also be allowed
outside these hours through a $90
permit. At its July 24 meeting, the
commission was generally pleased
with the revised proposal, with Chair
Ed Lauing pointing to it as evidence
that the city has listened to the public.
Amplified sound became an issue
two years ago when the city installed
outlets to enable concerts at its newly
established weekly farmers market.
The market idea ultimately flopped
but the outlets remained. According
to Daren Anderson, a manager at the
Community Services Department,
people have been using these outlets
to â&#x20AC;&#x153;power portable stereos, heaters,
stoves and various other personal
electronic devices.â&#x20AC;? Police have also
been getting complaints about loud
music being played during the day
and late at night. Not everyone, however, is enthused about the new rules.
Mark Weiss, a concert promoter and
unofficial City Council candidate, criticized the proposed revision as â&#x20AC;&#x153;overly
broad,â&#x20AC;? â&#x20AC;&#x153;convolutedâ&#x20AC;? and inconsistent
with the First Amendment.
SENDING SIGNALS ... Drivers crossing and cruising along the Caltrain
tracks will see some changes to the
timing of traffic signals along Alma
Street at East Meadow, Churchill
and Charleston crossings. The
City of Palo Alto last week made the
changes at East Meadow and plans
to schedule the other intersections as
early as next week, Chief Transporta-

tion Official Jaime Rodriguez said.
The signal operations would be the
same at all three intersections and
include the left-turn movements on
Alma Street. When a train has passed
through the intersection the signal
can allow northbound left-turn traffic if there is demand. If no vehicles
are turning left, the signal would turn
green when a sensor finds a car waiting. The change affects traffic going
westbound (towards El Camino Real)
and eastbound (towards Middlefield
Road). The light sequence that clears
traffic off of the eastbound approach
to the tracks before arrival of the train
remains the same, however, he said.
TUNING IN ... While Palo Alto officials fret about the rising costs and
unexpected delays associated with
the construction of the new Mitchell
Park Library, a different sort of library
is quietly rising behind the scenes.
Library officials in the famously
high-tech city have been working
on opening a â&#x20AC;&#x153;virtual branchâ&#x20AC;? that
would greatly expand online services
and allow users to interact with library staff and check out books and
music without leaving their homes.
Though online services are far from
new, the cityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s library system plans
to bring this digital branch to a new
level in the coming weeks by adding
a host of new features, including the
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Discover & Goâ&#x20AC;? service that allows
users to get free passes to selected
museums, and an interactive â&#x20AC;&#x153;Magic
Wallâ&#x20AC;? platform for e-books, courtesy
of the company Axis 360. The latest
offering is â&#x20AC;&#x153;Freegal,â&#x20AC;? a service that
allows anyone with a library card
to download up to three songs per
week. Sure, itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not exactly iTunes
or Amazon, but music selection is
broad, if not deep. Songs available
for downloading range from the familiar (Neil Diamondâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;Sweet Carolineâ&#x20AC;?
and A Flock of Seagullsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; â&#x20AC;&#x153;I Ran (So
Far Away)â&#x20AC;? are both in the catalog)
to the eclectic (anyone up for some
Classical Hindustani or Oceania?).
Library Director Monique le Conge
said at last monthâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Library Advisory
Commission that the intent is to have
the virtual branch operate as another
library, with a branch manager who
curates the collection and makes
sure everything is running seamlessly.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s not just a web page; itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s actually a branch with people behind it,
interacting with the customers and allowing them to interact with us in the
ways that they need to and want to,â&#x20AC;?
le Conge said. N

Upfront
ENVIRONMENT

San Francisquito Creek project to surge ahead next year
Long-stalled flood-control plans include new levees, protection for wildlife

W

hen flood-control officials
finally break ground next
year on a long-awaited effort to calm the flood-prone San
Francisquito Creek, it won’t be just
the human residents around the creek
whom they’ll be looking to protect.
The downstream area that’s targeted for construction, between the
Baylands and U.S. Highway 101, is
home to a rich array of wildlife, including the California clapper rail,
the white-tailed kite and the doublecrested cormorant. The salt marsh
harvest mouse, an endangered species, makes its home in the Baylands
and the salt marsh wandering shrew
has been known to wander in this
area as well. California red-legged
frogs have also been observed several miles from the construction area,
as have western pond turtles.
The regional strategy for protecting these species from construction
is detailed in the newly released
environmental impact report
(EIR), a state-mandated document
that analyzes the expected impacts
of the ambitious project and proposes strategies for minimizing the
problems.
The effort is being spearheaded
by the San Francisquito Creek Joint
Powers Authority, which consists
of officials from Palo Alto, East
Palo Alto, Menlo Park, the Santa
Clara Valley Water District and
the San Mateo County Flood Protection District. The overarching
goal is to protect the partner cities
from the dreaded 100-year flood,
which by definition has a 1 percent chance of happening in any
given year. The major project targets the particularly flood-prone
area downstream, which suffered
millions of dollars in damages in
a February 1998 flood. To calm
the floodwater in this area, the
creek authority plans to knock
down an old, largely degraded levee to allow floodwater from the
creek to enter the Baylands. New
levees would then be constructed
to widen the channel, and floodwalls would be added along East

Bayshore Road.
On a parallel track, the agency
is also looking to upgrade several
bridges over the creek — starting with the Newell Road bridge
between Palo Alto and East Palo
Alto — and explore possible options for retaining flood water in
the upstream area in the Santa
Cruz Mountains.
While the primary goal of the
downstream project detailed in the
new environmental analysis is to
calm the creek, officials from the
partner cities also hope to use this
opportunity to enhance the area’s
natural habitat and recreational
uses. The destruction of the old
levee, for example, would create
new marshlands, while the reconstruction of the Palo Alto Municipal Golf Course would make
space available for three athletic
fields, an amenity that Palo Alto
officials enthusiastically endorsed
last month.
But as the new report makes
clear, the project comes with plenty of challenges, including the task
of ensuring that construction won’t
harm or displace members of the
rich and delicate Baylands ecosystem. The creek authority is proposing a wide array of measures
to protect the area’s biological resources. These include installing
“nesting exclusion devices” to prevent birds from setting up nests in
construction zones, planting native
vegetation species and conducting
extensive surveys of nesting raptors, migratory birds, burrowing
owls and other species just prior
to construction. The agency would
then establish buffer zones and, if
necessary, delay or relocate portions of the project as needed to
accommodate the wildlife.
The creek authority plans to begin relocating utility equipment
in December and to start work on
the levees in January. Much of the
levee excavation and construction
is pegged for next summer. The
authority plans to start constructing floodwalls in May 2014 and to

Veronica Weber

by Gennady Sheyner

Veronica Weber

Along with the salt marsh harvest mouse, California red-legged frog,
white-tailed kite and double-crested cormorant, this Snowy Egret makes
its home in the Palo Alto Baylands Nature Preserve.

The area adjacent to the San Francisquito Creek is slated for a flood-reduction and ecosystem-restoration
project.
have the project largely completed
by the end of that year.
These deadlines could slip, however, if the wildlife doesn’t cooperate. The environmental report
notes, for example, that if a biologist
identifies a nesting burrowing owl
in an area that would be affected
by construction, a 250-foot “no-ac-

sis acknowledges that the project
will have other unwanted impacts,
some of which cannot be mitigated. This includes pollution from
construction, which is expected
to exceed the Bay Area Air Quality Management District’s threshold for significance. The level of
nitrogen oxide, the report notes,

While the primary goal of the downstream
project detailed in the new environmental
analysis is to calm the creek, officials from the
partner cities also hope to use this opportunity
to enhance the area’s natural habitat and
recreational uses.
tivity buffer” would be established
and remain in place while the nest
is active. Similarly, if a California
clapper rail or a California black
rail sets up nests near the construction area, project activities “will
be postponed until after the young
have fledged.” And if a salt marsh
harvest mouse or a salt marsh wandering shrew is observed while
workers are clearing pickleweeds,
“clearing will cease and workers
will move to a new area.”
The new report also dedicates a
section to protection of the steelhead trout, another prominent
member of the Baylands ecosystem. The authority plans to avoid
in-channel construction between
early October and the end of
April, the steelhead migration period, and to have a fisheries biologist survey construction areas for
surface water before construction
commences. Before an area is dewatered, the report states, “fish will
be captured and relocated to avoid
injury and mortality and minimize
disturbance.”
The new environmental analy-

would remain “significant and unavoidable” by state standards. But
in the creek authority’s view, this
short-term spike in air pollution is
a reasonable price to pay for longterm flood protection.
The authority’s “judgment is that
the flood control benefits to residents in East Palo Alto and Palo
Alto outweighs the temporary
significant and unavoidable NOx
emissions during project constructions,” the environmental report
states.
Another impact that cannot be
avoided is disruption to Palo Alto’s golf course, the environmental report notes. In this case, however, the city has its own plan for
addressing this significant recreation impact. On July 23, the City
Council unanimously approved a
$7.5 million plan for redesigning
the golf course to align it with the
proposed levee configuration. The
project would get about $3 million
in funding from the creek authority. Palo Alto would foot the rest
of the bill, with the city’s share
coming from playing fees at the

golf course.
The project detailed in the new
report is a major step forward for
a flood-control effort that languished under inadequate funding for more than a decade before
generating momentum in the past
three years. It also signifies the
fresh approach toward flood control that the creek authority adopted under Len Materman, who
became the agency’s executive director in 2008. Previously, officials
from the three cities and the two
water districts had pinned their
hopes on the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineering, which had been conducting its own study for protecting the area from floods. But with
the federal study underfunded and
making imperceptible progress,
the creek authority elected to pursue its own smaller-scale projects
targeting specific portions of the
watershed.
The downstream project has already received the backing of all
five members of the creek authority. In Palo Alto, residents in the
Crescent Park and Duveneck/St.
Francis neighborhoods near the
creek have been particularly adamant over the years about the need
to boost flood protection.
The release of the Environmental Impact Report triggers a 45-day
review period during which people
can submit comments and questions,
which the creek authority must address. The review period concludes
on Sept. 13. The report is available
at www.sfcjpa.org.
The authority also plans to hold
public hearings on the project at 6
p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 15, and
Wednesday, Aug. 29, on the first floor
of the East Palo Alto City Hall. N
Staff Writer Gennady Sheyner
can be emailed at gsheyner@
paweekly.com.

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Upfront
MENTAL HEALTH

TRANSPORTATION

How to capitalize on failure
Stanford luminaries share personal stories
of rejection in ‘resilience project’
by Chris Kenrick

R

thing is the cloak that I’m wearing
as I walk through life.”
Other Stanford luminaries sharing
their stories with the Resilience Project include award-winning writer
and English professor Tobias Wolff,
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen
Breyer, retired U.S. Supreme Court
Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, HP
CFO Cathie Lesjak, novelist and
School of Medicine Professor Abraham Verghese and retired chemistry
professor Carl Djerassi, famous for
his contribution to the development
of the birth-control pill.
The project was launched in 2011
by Adina Glickman, associate director for academic support at Stanford’s Center for Teaching & Learning. She was inspired by Harvard
University’s “Success/Failure Project,” which generated a handbook
for students called “Reflections on
Rejections.”
“I thought our students are similar
and that it would be good to start
something speaking to the same
issues for Stanford students,” said
Glickman, who coaches students
who are struggling with academic
or other issues.
“A lot of times, when you’re feeling stressed, you feel like you’re the
only one,” she said.
Last year Glickman and her steering committee assembled a wish list
of Stanford faculty and alumni they
hoped would share their stories and
began approaching people.
So far, she said, “Nobody’s turned
us down. In fact, the most common
response is, ‘Which of the stories
should I talk about?’”
Of the 16 interviews posted so far,
several — including those of Lesjak, Djerassi, O’Connor and Breyer
— are restricted to viewers with a
Stanford password. Glickman said
that’s either at the request of the interviewee or because she hasn’t had
a chance to clear it with the subject.
She plans to continue adding stories, with a new focus on student stories, at the request of other students.

Daniella Sanchez

ejection.
Many Stanford University
students — having assiduously polished their grades and resumes
to gain admission to the university
— have never really experienced it.
Some of Stanford’s respected professors, students and alumni now
are sharing their personal memories of rejection in a project to teach
“failure-deprived” undergraduates
not to be defeated by setbacks but
to capitalize on them.
In the Resilience Project, computer-science professor and former
Google research scientist Mehran
Sahami recounts rejection letters
for jobs he badly wanted; Pandora
founder Tim Westergren recalls
experiencing hundreds of rejections; and former freshman dean
Julie Lythcott-Haims tells of feeling
crushed after earning a D in the first
quarter of her freshman year.
“I just saw that as the university’s
indication that I was in fact the one
admission mistake in the great class
of ‘89,” Lythcott-Haims recalls in a
video on the Stanford Resilience
Project website.
“If I failed at this class that was
supposed to be the easy entry point
to academic life, then clearly I was
not cut out for anything, so that was
hard.”
When she finally told her parents,
“they reacted beautifully,” told her
they loved her and helped her find
resources at Stanford to help her get
back on track.
“Over the 20-plus years from that D
in communications, I’ve learned how
to sit with those disappointments and
not let them become me,” said Lythcott-Haims, a Harvard Law School
graduate who recently resigned to
study writing and poetry after 14
years as a Stanford adviser and dean.
“I sit and examine them and take
from them what I can and learn
from them. ... I strengthen myself
and become a stronger, more effective person as a result of that bad
thing instead of feeling that bad

Erin Simongs, a Stanford University graduate student, commutes from San Francisco to Palo Alto via
Caltrain on Aug. 6.

Caltrain reports record ridership,
revenue boost
Caltrain’s average weekday ridership in June was a record 50,390,
an 11 percent increase over June
2011, the Peninsula Corridor Joint
Powers Board, which governs
Caltrain, announced Thursday,
Aug. 2.
This was the first time in Caltain’s 149-year history that weekday ridership exceeded 50,000,

Stanford students are “amazingly
diverse in personality and outlook
and world view,” Glickman said.
While some have never known rejection, others have overcome huge
obstacles of poverty and homelessness but haven’t figured out how
to transfer those coping skills to
academic life in an elite institution.
Others, when met with a challenge,

the board stated. Also, June was
the 23rd consecutive month of
ridership increases.
As a result, Caltrain plans to
restore four midday trains that
were eliminated last year due to
budget cuts and add two new evening trains in the fall. Caltrain
attributes the growing ridership
in part to schedule changes and

know to roll up their sleeves and say,
“What can I do differently?”
“It’s a full range, but Stanford is
such a challenging place to be that
almost everyone feels at some point
they don’t belong and they were the
admission mistake, and it challenges
their sense of belonging and sense
of capacity,” she said.
In July, Glickman presented the

Resilience Project to fellow educators attending the National Resource
Center’s International Conference
on the First-Year Experience.
“There was a lot of interest by people in developing something similar”
on other campuses, she said. N
Staff Writer Chris Kenrick can
be emailed at ckenrick@paweekly.
com.

COMMUNITY

A celebration of cycling to roll into Palo Alto
Palo Alto Gran Fondo set for Sept. 16

O

n the list of things the Palo
Alto community enjoys, bicycling and food are right
at the top, and the Italian-inspired
Gran Fondo bike ride and festival is
bringing them together in a celebration of cycling and food Sept. 16 in
front of City Hall.
Italian professional cyclist
Michele Scarponi will headline
this year’s Gran Fondo (Italian
for “big ride”), which features
courses of 30 miles, 75 miles and
95 miles.
The two longer courses take rid-

ers over the Santa Cruz Mountains
to the Pacific Ocean before looping back to Palo Alto. Elevation
changes of thousands of feet will
challenge riders.
Participants not looking to spend
hours on a bike seat can take part
in the Echelon Challenge, a 0.6mile loop around downtown Palo
Alto for walkers, joggers and
cruiser bikes.
Hunter Ziesing, executive director of Echelon, the San Franciscobased nonprofit hosting the event,
was encouraged by the turnout last

Page 6ÊUÊÕ}ÕÃÌÊ£ä]ÊÓä£ÓÊUÊ*>ÊÌÊ7iiÞÊUÊÜÜÜ°*>Ì"i°V

by Dean McArdle
year — the Gran Fondo’s first year
— and is hoping for even more riders this September.
“We had about 600 or 700 (participants) last year,” Ziesing said.
“And we are expecting between
800 and 1,200 this year.”
More than 40 charities will
benefit from fundraising by Gran
Fondo and Echelon Challenge participants.
“The number of charities has gone
from 17 to over 40,” Ziesing said.
“About 70 percent of those charities are local,” he said, referring to

the Bay Area nonprofits.
The entrance fee for fundraising
teams is $5 for the Echelon Challenge event and $50 for the Gran
Fondo. Echelon Challenge teams
are required to raise an additional
$100 for their charity of choice, and
Gran Fondo teams are likewise required to raise $250.
After completing the 95-mile
Gran Fondo course, or the 0.6mile Challenge course, hungry
participants can converge on a
post-race food-and-drink festival.
The event will offer a sampling of

dishes from local restaurants, including The Flea Market and New
Leaf Market, along with a selection of cheeses from Pescadero’s
Harley Farms.
“I really want to get the people of
Palo Alto who are health minded
to come out and have a good time,”
Ziesing said.
More information on the event
can be found at www.echelongranfondo.org. N
Editorial Intern Dean McArdle
can be emailed at dmcardle@
paweekly.com.

Upfront

Dauber

TECHNOLOGY

(continued from page 3)

Google fined $22.5M for privacy ‘misrepresentations’
Search giant charged with planting cookies on computers of Apple’s Safari users
by Gennady Sheyner
oogle will be required to pay
a $22.5 million penalty after
the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charged the Mountain
View-based Internet search giant
with misrepresenting its privacy
settings to its users.
The privacy settlement, which
according to the FTC is the largest penalty ever for violation of
a commission order, came after
a Stanford University graduate
student uncovered the company’s
placement of “cookies” on users’
computers even if they use Apple’s
Safari browser, which is set by default to block the cookies. Cookies are data stored in a browser
that track users’ online activities.
They are often used by companies

G

to send targeted ads to users.
In addition to the penalty, the
FTC’s order requires Google to
“disable all tracking cookies it had
said it would not place on consumers’ computers,” according to the
commission’s statement.
Jonathan Mayer, the Stanford student who brought Google’s cookie
policy to light, wrote in a February
post on his blog that Google and
Vibrant Media (a company that
specializes in display advertising)
“intentionally circumvent Safari’s
privacy feature.” He also provided
on his blog a detailed technical
analysis of Apple’s Safari browser
and the process Google followed
for planting cookies despite the
privacy features.

The FTC charged in its complaint
that Google had been placing cookies on computers of Safari users for
several months in 2011 and 2012,
“although Google had previously
told these users they would automatically be opted out of such
tracking, as a result of the default
setting of the Safari browser used
in Macs, iPhones and iPads.”
According to the FTC, Google’s
“misrepresentations” violated its
October 2011 settlement with the
FTC, which barred the company
from “misrepresenting the extent
to which consumers can exercise
control over the collection of their
information.”
The commission issued a statement Thursday, Aug. 9, saying that

its settlement “is intended to provide a strong message to Google
and other companies under order
that their actions will be under
close scrutiny and that the Commission will respond to violations
quickly and vigorously.”
“No matter how big or small, all
companies must abide by FTC orders against them and keep their
privacy promises to consumers,
or they will end up paying many
times what it would have cost to
comply in the first place,” John
Leibowitz, chairman of the FTC,
said in a statement. N
Staff Writer Gennady Sheyner
can be emailed at gsheyner@
paweekly.com.

Fire

article he found that quoted a Menlo
Park fire chief who was angry after
Palo Alto had responded to a fire
on his side of the border near San
Francisquito Creek.
“He told the Palo Alto fire chief
to ‘get the hell out’ of his town,”
Schapelhouman said. “We’re in
2012. Government works more ef-

ficiently if we all work together. At
the end of the day, it’s better for the
citizens of Palo Alto, East Palo Alto
and Menlo Park. In an emergency,
they want the closest resource.”
A mutual response to a house fire
on Jasmine Way in East Palo Alto
on July 31 helped keep a second
home — where an elderly disabled
woman lived — from serious fire
damage, he said.
Also last month, crews from both
departments kept contained a Baylands grass fire that came within
feet of homes in an adjacent East
Palo Alto neighborhood.
Under the agreement, Menlo
Park fire crews will go into Palo
Alto as far as Embarcadero Road
and up to Interstate 280 to the west,
and to West Bayshore Road to the
east. Palo Alto personnel will cover
Menlo Park from Sand Hill Road
and San Francisquito Creek to Valparaiso, Ravenswood and Ringwood
avenues to the north (See map).
Palo Alto fire protection will
extend into East Palo Alto from
Highway 101 to Bay Road and to
Cooley Landing. Menlo Park Fire
will respond to emergencies at the
Palo Alto Municipal Airport and in
the surrounding Baylands, as well
as providing water rescue in the San
Francisquito Creek.
Schapelhouman said he hopes the
entire program will be running by
the end of the year. The real work
to be done is within the dispatch
center, which would send out the
nearest units. Both agencies must
find ways to meld or revise their
different communications systems,
he said.
Palo Alto fire department personnel and Schapelhouman will meet
next week to talk about providing
Palo Alto with additional commu-

nications equipment. Both departments recently conducted major
radio system improvements so that
they can talk on each department’s
frequencies, he said.
“We shouldn’t rush that part because we need to do the analytics
every time we make a change to ensure that the change is actually an
improvement and working the way
we want it to,” he said.
Geo Blackshire, Palo Alto Fire
deputy chief of operations, said a
trial run in East Palo Alto in the last
year has worked out well. While initially there were concerns that the
aid would be lopsided, Blackshire
said that has not turned out to be the
case. Palo Alto has benefited when
incidents occur closer to a Menlo
Park station. If a Palo Alto station
is closed or understaffed because of
a response to another emergency,
equipment and personnel from the
nearest Menlo Park station can be
used, he said.
The agreements will not cost the
departments additional money, he
said.
The multiple responses could help
cover any personnel or equipment
deficits, Schapelhouman said.
He is also seeking an automaticaid agreement with Fremont Fire
to cover parts of East Palo Alto beyond Bay Road to the Dumbarton
Bridge. That agreement will come
before the Fremont City Council in
September. N
Staff Writer Sue Dremann can
be emailed at sdremann@paweekly.com.

(continued from page 3)

the residents of both cities in the
shortest amount of time, he said.
Fire departments have had a traditional culture of “turfing,” he noted. He recalled a 1943 newspaper

Palo Alto/Menlo Park shared
fire-protection areas

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Map by Shannon Corey

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An updated automatic-aid
agreement between Palo Alto
and Menlo Park fire-protection
districts will dispatch equipment
and personnel beyond city
boundaries in a fire or emergency.
Map boundaries are approximate.

year, Dauber filed seven requests
with the school district under the
California Public Records Act,
seeking district staff communications that mentioned himself, his
wife or We Can Do Better, as well as
staff communications regarding the
Gunn counseling system and board
member Barb Mitchell’s emails with
school staff.
We Can Do Better supported
the school board’s decision to shift
the 2012-13 academic calendar to
end the first semester before winter break and has pushed for Gunn
High School to adopt the “teacher
advisory” counseling model used at
Palo Alto High School.
The group also backed the board’s
decision this
past spring
to stiffen
high school
g r a du at ion
requirements
so they align
with entrance
criteria for
California’s
public fouryear universities begin- Ken Dauber
ning with
the class of 2016. Students unable or
unwilling to complete the four-year
college prep curriculum will be able
to negotiate alternative graduation
requirements.
The new standards will not affect
the more than 80 percent of Palo
Alto students who already meet or
exceed the four-year college-prep
curriculum but are aimed at raising
the bar for the 20 percent who consistently fall short of that.
Dauber was a member of the
school district’s Homework Committee, which in May issued recommendations to the school board, including specifying amounts of time
students at each grade level should
be spending on homework.
He has consulted on education
data and educational equity with the
U.S. Department of Education, the
Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
and Education Trust West.
He holds bachelor’s and master’s
degrees from Yale University and a
doctorate in sociology from the University of Arizona.
The candidate filing period for
the Nov. 6 election ends Aug. 15,
an extended deadline due to the fact
that an incumbent member, Barbara Klausner, decided not to seek
re-election. N
Staff Writer Chris Kenrick can
be emailed at ckenrick@paweekly.
com.

CityView
A round-up of

Palo Alto government action this week

City Council
The council did not meet this week.

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Upfront

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These and other news stories were posted on Palo Alto Online throughout
the week. For longer versions, go to www.PaloAltoOnline.com/news
or click on “News” in the left, green column.

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Wave of property crimes hits Menlo Park
A walker, a generator, computers and a gun were among the items
stolen in a wave of property crimes in Menlo Park over the past several
days that included seven burglaries and three cases of theft, according
to police reports. (Posted Aug. 9 at 8:25 a.m.)

A barricaded East Palo Alto street was not the scene of a police action Tuesday night, Aug. 7, but a celebration to increase neighborhood
unity and cooperation with police. (Posted Aug. 8 at 10:45 a.m.)

East Palo Alto police investigate assault, shooting
Two suspects forced their way into a residence and shot a victim in East
Palo Alto Tuesday morning, Aug. 7, police said. (Posted Aug. 8 at 9:48 a.m.)

.

CVS manager struggles with alleged thief
A man who stole $10 worth of food from a CVS pharmacy could
face strong-arm-robbery charges after engaging in a struggle with the
store manager, Palo Alto police said. (Posted Aug. 7 at 4:53 p.m.)

Firefighters contain woodland fire in Woodside
Firefighters needed about 20 minutes Monday, Aug. 6, to contain a
woodland fire that burned some 600 square feet of vegetation in an
upland Woodside neighborhood. Investigators are attributing the fire
to a stray spark igniting natural gas when workers broke a gas line.

w w w.internalDrive.c
o
1-888-709-TECH (8324) m

(Posted Aug. 7 at 4:06 p.m.)

NASA Ames scientist to analyze Mars data
Thousands of people gathered at the NASA Ames Research Center
at Moffett Field Sunday night, Aug. 5, to watch the historic landing
of the Mars rover Curiosity on the mysterious red planet. (Posted Aug.
7 at 8:34 a.m.)

Motorcyclist dies in crash on Woodside Road
A 27-year-old San Francisco man was killed Friday, Aug. 3, on
Woodside Road when his motorcycle collided with a car heading out
of the Menlo Country Club. (Posted Aug. 7 at 8:20 a.m.)

ATTENTION ADVERTISERS

Computer with patient info stolen from Stanford
A computer containing some medical and personal information for
approximately 2,500 patients was stolen from a Stanford faculty member’s locked office sometime between July 15 and 16, according to
Stanford University Medical Center. (Posted Aug. 3 at 9:53 a.m.)

Fugitive arrested in East Palo Alto to be on TV
A Salinas fugitive became the unwitting star of the show after running a stop sign in East Palo Alto Wednesday night, Aug. 1. (Posted
Aug. 3 at 9:45 a.m.)

FALL
HOME & GARDEN DESIGN
IS COMING

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Sign up for Express, our new daily e-edition.
Go to www.PaloAltoOnline.com to sign up.

COUNCIL RAIL COMMITTEE ... The committee plans to hear a report from
its Sacramento high-speed-rail lobbyist and discuss proposed modification language for the high-speed-rail appropriation legislation. The meeting
will begin at 3 p.m. on Friday, Aug. 10, in the Council Conference Room at
City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.).
CUBBERLEY POLICY ADVISORY COMMITTEE ... The committee plans to
discuss the scope of the Community Advisory Committee report addressing the future of the Cubberley Community Center. The meeting will begin
at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Aug. 15, in the school district boardroom (25
Churchill Ave.).
ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW BOARD ... The board plans to discuss the San
Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority’s initial flood-control project,
which includes riparian corridor enhancements and a redesign of the Palo
Alto Municipal Golf Course. The meeting will begin at 8:30 a.m. on Thursday, Aug. 16, in the Council Chambers at City Hall (250 Hamilton Ave.).

Upfront

News Digest
Palo Alto Sikhs try to raise awareness
Local Sikh philanthropist and entrepreneur Narinder Singh Kapany
sees the Aug. 5 shooting in Wisconsin that left six Sikhs dead as part of
a disturbing trend of violence against his religious group.
Sikhism is a monotheistic religion from the Punjab region of Southeast
Asia whose men traditionally wear turbans and long beards. Kapany said
that Sikhs have increasingly been the victims of acts of violence since the
Sept. 11 attacks, often because they’re confused with Muslims.
Wade Michael Page, the alleged perpetrator of last weekend’s shooting, had
ties to white supremacist organizations, according to the Southern Poverty
Law Center, which monitors hate groups and other domestic extremists.
While Page’s motives remain unknown, the New York-based Sikh Coalition has reported more than 700 attacks or bias-related crimes against
Sikhs since the Sept. 11 attacks.
In 2006, Iqbal Singh, a Sikh living in Santa Clara, was stabbed in the
neck by a man with a steak knife who apparently believed Singh was a
member of the Taliban. Instances of vandalism, arson, assault and murder
have also occurred across the country.
“Right here in the Silicon Valley, there are 40 or 50 Sikhs running
their own companies, hiring people and doing wonderful things for our
country,” Kapany said.
Kapany himself is credited with being one of the founders of fiber
optics. He founded the Sikh Foundation, located in Palo Alto, in 1967 to
advance the Sikh culture in the West.
“The only answer, quite frankly, is to get the people to learn what we’re
all about,” he said of anti-Sikh sentiments. “Come to our temple. We welcome everyone. Meet with us, try to understand, and that’s all we ask.” N
— Eric Van Susteren

PiE announces 2012-13 fundraising goal
An independent, parent-led foundation that raises funds for Palo Alto’s
public schools announced a 2012-13 fundraising goal of $4.75 million.
Palo Alto Partners in Education (PiE) will solicit contributions from
parents, community members and businesses to support classroom aides;
specialists in reading, math, science and the arts; student guidance; college and career counseling; and an array of electives.
Launched Tuesday, Aug. 7, the campaign will run through January with
the resulting gift to the school district to be announced in March.
In 2011-12, PiE donated $4.4 million to the Palo Alto Unified School
District (PAUSD), comprising nearly 3 percent of the district’s total operating budget of approximately $160 million. Of that amount, $2.35
million went to the district’s 12 elementary schools and Young Fives
program, $850,000 to the three middle schools and a combined $1.2
million to Gunn and Palo Alto high schools.
“In the face of ongoing state budget cuts, donations to our schools
through PiE have become a bedrock of support for PAUSD.
“Every student in the district benefits from PiE dollars, which are
allocated on a per student basis to provide funding at each school,” Superintendent Kevin Skelly said.
Last year PiE received donations from more than 4,600 school families
and community members. Families received direct appeal letters in their
back-to-school packets.
Since its inception in 2004-05, PiE has donated nearly $20 million to
Palo Alto schools. Information is available at www.papie.org. N
— Chris Kenrick

Come join us to celebrate our

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SATURDAY, AUGUST 18TH
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East Palo Alto selects new city manager
A former Redwood City deputy city manager who worked with underserved youth and families has been chosen as East Palo Alto’s new city
manager, the city announced on Friday, Aug. 3.
Magda Gonzalez, 48, will replace ML Gordon, who retired March 2.
Police Chief Ronald Davis has served as interim city manager since then
but chose not to apply for the permanent position. Gonzalez’s selection follows an extensive six-month national search that attracted 78 applicants.
Gonzalez holds a bachelor’s degree in social science from California
State University, Sacramento, and a law degree from Santa Clara University Law School.
She has extensive experience in municipal government, working in
executive-level positions, including as human-resources director, assistant city manager and deputy city manager, in the cities of Belmont,
San Bruno and Redwood City. She was laid off from her position in
Redwood City last year.
She grew up in Redwood City and graduated from Sequoia High School in
1981. She spent her teen years working at the Fair Oaks Community Center
in the city’s core Latino district. She also worked as the center’s director.
Gonzalez is president-elect of the International Hispanic Network and
is current conference-planning chairperson at the International City/
County Management Association (ICMA).
She is the recipient of the 2008 “Rising Star Award” from the Municipal Managers Association of Northern California, Women’s Leadership
Summit, and a 2007 “Leadership Hall of Fame Inductee” for the Redwood City/San Mateo County Chamber of Commerce. She is married
and has a 13-year-old son. N
— Sue Dremann

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Horses at Portola Pastures (from left, Paddington, Dakota and Jamie) munch on feed in their pasture,
seemingly oblivious to the smoke coming from fires a few hundred feet away on the hillside of the Pearson
Arastradero Preserve on Aug. 8.

Good for Business. Good for You.
Good for the Community.

Arson

(continued from page 3)

they needed to move the 15 or 20
horses out of the upper pasture, she
said. Ruelas said Portola Pastures
shelters about 155 horses.
Firefighters from Palo Alto, Menlo
Park, Coastside in Half Moon Bay,
Woodside, Santa Clara County and
Cal Fire, plus aircraft that dumped
fire retardant and a helicopter that
dropped water, swooped down on
the blaze, according to Cal Fire.
Police blocked traffic along Arastradero Road from Page Mill to Alpine roads and closed the preserve.
Only horse owners were allowed to
check on their animals.
Crews had the fire contained by 6
p.m. and remained into the evening
to ensure the hot spots did not flare.
The open-space preserve is open,
with all hiking trails available, according to the police statement.
Police are asking anyone with information about the fires to contact
the department at 650-329-2413.
Anonymous tips can be emailed
to paloalto@tipnow.org or sent via
text message or voicemail to 650383-8984. N
Staff Writer Sue Dremann can
be emailed at sdremann@paweekly.com.

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transportation grant designed to provide 100 bikes for Palo Altobound Caltrain commuters unfortunately got tangled in a discussion at the Architectural and Review Board (ARB) last week,
delaying approval of the sites selected for the automated stations where
bikes could be checked out and returned as part of a pilot program.
The hang-up focused on one station, near Lytton Plaza, which board
members thought would not appeal to most commuters, who could
walk there, they said. The ARB, which has a role because it must
approve the aesthetics of new commercial development, ultimately
decided to send it back for more study and will consider it again next
Thursday.
It was an ignoble beginning for what is a substantial grant approved
two years ago that will bring the city the beginnings of a bike rental
program. It will add another option for commuters, residents and visitors to get around town. Similar programs are in place in many large
cities, including Washington, D.C., Boston, Denver and Paris, and
increasingly in other smaller communities.
The Palo Alto portion is part of a larger, $7.9 million Metropolitan
Transportation Commission’s Climate Initiatives Grant, which will
pay to purchase 1,000 bikes for cities on the Caltrain corridor, including San Jose, Mountain View, Redwood City and San Francisco. The
idea is for the bikes to make Caltrain more appealing for commuters,
who could use the bikes to reach their final destination.
The bikes, all equipped with radio-frequency identification tags
(RFID), will be available at the University Avenue station and at several locations downtown and California Avenue, as well as sites still
to be announced at Stanford.
Users pay a deposit fee electronically and then get the first half-hour
of use free, generally enough time to get to a rental station near their
destination and return the bike. They then pick up a new bike for the
return trip.
Rafael Rius, the city’s traffic engineer, told the ARB that many potential bike station locations are not included in the pilot program yet
because they are too far from public transit, would need approval from
multiple public agencies or are under construction. They include the
county courthouse, Mitchell Park Library, Main Library, Lucie Stern
Community Center, the park-and-ride lot at El Camino Real and Page
Mill Road, Heritage Park and the Downtown Library.
These stations will have to wait until another phase of the program, when it is hoped there will be adequate funds to expand beyond
serving just commuters. The grant will pay for the program to be
established and for the first bikes. It is expected that the ongoing program will be funded by corporate sponsorships and membership and
rental fees, which would be used to maintain the bikes and operate
the program and ultimately expand the number of station locations.
That is when it might be possible to operate more stations outside the
downtown core.
The plan is supposed to be on a fast track for city approval. Once
the ARB approves it, it will be considered by the Transportation and
Planning Commission later in August and the City Council in September or October.
When it was announced in 2010, the grant reflected the groundwork done by then-Mayor Yoriko Kishimoto, who had spearheaded a
2008 effort for the city to launch its own bike-loan program. But the
City Council decided then to back out of a $65,000 commitment for
a 20-bike program. Instead, the staff was directed to find opportunities for a regional bike-sharing program with the Santa Clara Valley
Transportation Authority, which is in part responsible for winning the
grant announced in 2010.
At the time, Kishimoto, who served on the boards of directors of
the VTA and the air-quality district, was a leading proponent of the
regional bike-sharing program, which she found consistent with the
goals of Palo Alto and the VTA to boost the number of commuters
who use bikes to get around the city.
Kishimoto said transportation agencies wanted to provide train riders with a unified message — that bikes are a viable option for getting
around town and can solve the problem of the “last mile” by giving
commuters a way to get to their ultimate destination once they step
off the train.
Only in Palo Alto would a pilot plan to have 100 bikes available for
rent in a few locations, paid for by a grant, require review by two city
commissions and the City Council, as well as the staff time needed to
attend these meetings.
This modest plan is appropriately aimed at in-bound train commuters to Palo Alto and should be embraced by the city as another way to
encourage workers to get out of their cars.
It should be up to city staff members to select the best locations for
this innovative pilot program, and to change them if they turn out to
be underutilized.
We trust the ARB will lead the way toward quick passage of the
plan, and its eventual approval by the City Council, while resisting the
temptation to pick apart every detail.
Page 12ÊUÊÕ}ÕÃÌÊ£ä]ÊÓä£ÓÊUÊ*>ÊÌÊ7iiÞÊUÊÜÜÜ°*>Ì"i°V

Spectrum
Editorials, letters and opinions

Ptah for council
Editor,
My first vote for a Palo Alto
City Council member went to an
artist and denture technician who
billed himself as the reincarnation
of the Egyptian god Ptah.
Why throw away my vote? The
sameness of the candidates, their
backgrounds and positions almost
demanded I vote for the Pan-pipe
playing Ptah. With rare exceptions,
I’ve continued that practice.
My desire for a more diverse
leadership is why I cringed when
the Weekly bemoaned the lack of
“qualified candidates” for the City
Council and school board.
In Palo Alto a candidate is generally considered “qualified” if
he or she has served on several of
the city’s umpteen commissions,
been a leader of one of its amorphous neighborhood associations
or risen through the ranks of some
other civic organization.
That commonly accepted definition builds a leadership cadre of
people with a good grasp of community issues. But it also guarantees a sameness of thinking that
stifles the creativity required to
solve difficult problems.
Palo Alto is homogenous demographically but not necessarily
in the opinions and knowledge
needed to make it a better place to
live. Fresh approaches to issues,
even if impractical right now, can
stimulate thinking that produces
new solutions.
In the 1980s, Ptah (aka Ronald
Bennett) proposed building a tunnel between Palo Alto and Half
Moon Bay to ease traffic congestion. Like his candidacy, the idea
went nowhere. To me, though, the
ability to conjure up even fanciful solutions such as that is more
important than service on a dozen
boards.
Bill Bucy
La Selva Drive

Is this right?
Editor,
I recently returned to find a
Weekly article referring to my
appeal of the conversion of Casa
Olga into an 85-room hotel and
restaurant and the developer’s attorney basically calling me a selfserving crackpot. Yes, I support
residential permit parking.
Here are facts; make your own
decision.
1. Less than one-third of the
more than 6,000 downtown employees are provided with parking
in private or public lots/structures.
Maybe 15-20 percent use transit; the rest park on residential
streets.
2. Casa Olga generated few
cars and little need for parking.
The hotel-restaurant conversion
eliminates six existing spaces but
generates the need for more than

100 parking spaces for employees
and guests. (Although a developergenerated report says that only 25
percent of the guests and employees will drive. Is that believable?)
3. City approval says this is OK,
but in truth there is no space for
any of these added vehicles. Shortterm parking is for shoppers, and
permits are unavailable for employees.
4. The attorney says the hotel
will valet park, but where? Will
they displace other already spoken-for parking in private lots or
in structures with no net gain in
parking?
5. Casa Olga is one of 12 approved but as yet unoccupied
downtown projects in the pipeline, none of which meet their
real parking needs, uses that will
force 400 or more cars further into
neighborhoods spreading commercial parking intrusion into another
25-plus residential blocks, diminishing the livability and values of
yet more of Palo Alto’s residential
areas.
Is this right?
Ken Alsman
Ramona Street

This week on
Town Square

Town Square is an online
discussion forum at www.
PaloAltoOnline.com
Blog: London 94301
Posted Aug. 5 at 6:58 a.m. by David Vinokur, a former resident of the
Crescent Park neighborhood:
A chance sighting of Christine
Lagarde and impromptu interview
by NBC were mere accents to the
greatest show on British soil. A
week after the Opening Ceremony, we are still buzzing about that
amazing night.
Opening volley
The O.C. (sic) was equal parts
awe-inspiring, humorous, deeply
touching and, at times, an endurance test. The atmosphere in and
around the Olympic Stadium was
actually very relaxed and upbeat.
Dress code was largely casual, security was friendly, efficient and a
piece of cake. The run up was largely uneventful with two notable exceptions: we walked past Christine
Lagarde with her small entourage
— nice tan — and an NBC reporter

WHAT DO YOU THINK?
The Palo Alto Weekly encourages comments on our coverage
or on issues of local interest.

?

What do you think of the proposed
bike-share pilot program?

Submit letters to the editor of up to 250 words to letters@paweekly.com.
Submit guest opinions of 1,000 words to editor@paweekly.com. Include your
name, address and daytime phone number so we can reach you.
We reserve the right to edit contributions for length, objectionable content,
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publish it online, including in our online archives and as a post on Town Square.
For more information contact Editor Jocelyn Dong or Editorial Assistant
Eric Van Susteren at editor@paweekly.com or 650-326-8210.

Check out Town Square!
Hundreds of local topics are being discussed by local residents on
Town Square, a reader forum sponsored by the Weekly on our community website at www.PaloAltoOnline.com. Post your own comments,
ask questions, read the Editor’s blog or just stay up on what people are
talking about around town!
grabbed me for an interview, trying unsuccessfully to get me to comment on whether
“Trainspotting” would be mentioned during
the ceremony — very cheeky.
London on stonking good form
With the first week of the 2012 Olympics
in the bag, the resounding consensus, based
on our experience and that of our friends attending Olympic events and public festivals,
is that London is functioning very smoothly
and more than rising to the occasion. The
medal table is well and truly filling up, with
records being set at a rapid pace and controversy, badminton notwithstanding, kept to a
minimum. When asked which country I support, I fall back on the parents’ prerogative: I
couldn’t possibly choose a favorite. Between
my homeland and my country of residence, I
thankfully haven’t had to do too much choosing. Amidst following Team U.S.A., it’s worth
highlighting that Britain is threatening to exceed their record, set in Beijing, of 19 Olympic gold, and that Aug. 4 they enjoyed their
biggest ever one-day gold medal haul, behind
“Golden Girl” Jessica Ennis. These are truly
proud days for London and Great Britain.
I look forward to reporting more on London 2012, and to further reflections on being
a Palo Alto expat in this fine land.
Read more online by going to www.paloaltoonline.com/square and clicking “London
94301.”

Correction
In the Aug. 3 column “On Deadline: A
stronger ‘Project Safety Net’ is patching
holes, renewing its vision,” Greg Betts was
incorrectly identified as the city’s liaison
to the Project Safety Net collaboration to
enhance the well-being of Palo Alto youth.
The liaison is Rob de Geus. The city recently
hired social worker Christina Llerena to lead
Project Safety Net. To request a correction,
contact Editor Jocelyn Dong at 650-2236514, jdong@paweekly.com or P.O. Box 1610,
Palo Alto, CA 94302.

Guest Opinion
Front-loading respect and compassion in the digital age
by Gloria Moskowitz-Sweet
ike many people throughout
the world, I’m
mesmerized by the
Olympics.
The pomp of the
opening ceremony in
London, the parade of
athletes from all over
the world, the tenacity of the underdog Egyptian men’s soccer
team’s second half against soccer power
Brazil, the smile of 17-year-old Colorado
high school student Missy Franklin when
she won the women’s 100-meter backstroke
last week, and then dedicated her medal to
the victims of the Aurora movie theater
massacre. The list goes on and on...
I’m finding myself equally mesmerized
by other Olympic headlines; the headlines
of yet another athlete being kicked out of
the Olympics for racist tweets.
There is no doubt that the 2012 Olympics
are being fashioned and changed by social
media that was just in its toddlerhood four
years ago in Beijing.
Greek triple-jumper Paraskevi Papachristou was kicked off her country’s Olympic
team before the start of the Games after she
posted an offensive comment on her Twitter
account:
“With so many Africans in Greece, the
mosquitoes from the West Nile will at least
be eating some homemade food,” the tweet
read.
Papachristou later apologized, but the
damage was done, both to herself and to
the many Olympic athletes competing from

L

Africa. The Hellenic Olympic Committee
barred her from competing.
Early last week, Swiss soccer player Michel Morganella posted an offensive comment after his team’s 2-1 loss to South Korea. In his tweet, Morganella said he wanted
to beat up South Koreans and that they
should “burn.” He also referred to them as
“a bunch of monogloids.” His Twitter account has been deleted, but the damage was
already done. He was sent home from the
Games.
The 23-year-old player later released the
following statement:
“I am sincerely sorry for the people of
South Korea, for the players, but equally
for the Swiss delegation and Swiss football
in general. It’s clear that I’m accepting the
consequences.
“After the disappointing result and the
reaction from Korea that followed, I made
a huge error,” Morganella added.
Again, the harm to self and others was
huge. Morganella was stripped of his Olympic accreditation after insulting the dignity
of the South Korea soccer team.
The Swiss Olympic team chief has said of
Morganella after stripping him of Olympic
accreditation,”We hope that he will draw
the necessary lessons for his still young
football career,” an Olympic spokesperson
said.
So how are “these necessary lessons
drawn” in a world of living out loud? A
world where thoughts and messages, often
sent without much forethought, become
permanent digital tattoos and change the
lives of not only the athletes that face the
enormous consequences, but also greatly
hurt the recipients of their tweets?

How are children and teens who look to
these athletes as heros going to “draw the
necessary lessons” from broken dreams,
lost careers, racist rants, insensitive comments and hurt national pride?
It would be much simpler to call these
offensive tweets an aberration, a one-time
event from a few insensitive athletes, or to
“ban the tool” from the Games. But from
my work with children and teens, I know
that neither is an effective response. Banning the tool does not solve the problem
and marginalizing these athletes is both an
inhumane response and loses this opportunity to truly learn from these events.
Social media it is not going away. The immediacy and public nature of Facebook and
Twitter has made it necessary to teach children and youth the importance of thoughtful communication, respect and compassion
on-line. We need to help children learn, as
early as elementary school, the power and
permanence of the words they chose to post,
tweet, share and forward. We need to help
them understand that with the great power
of the Internet comes great responsibility.
And it is only through early education that
we can front-load thoughtful use, respect
and compassion in the digital age.
Gloria Moskowitz-Sweet has been a
school social worker, educator, program
developer and university lecturer since
1981. She was the coordinator of Parents
Place Community Education and Bullying Prevention Center on the Peninsula
for five years and a lecturer in the graduate program of social work at San Jose
State University for 20 years. Her company, mydigitaltat2.com, has an office in
Palo Alto.

Streetwise

What has been your favorite story of the Olympics so far?
Asked on Cambridge Avenue, Palo Alto. Interviews and photographs by Dean McArdle.

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If you wish to appeal any item on this agenda, contact the
Planning Division (329-2441) regarding time and fee. If you
challenge this land use decision in court, you may be limited
to raising only those issues you or someone else raised
at the public hearing described in this notice, or in written
correspondence delivered to the City of Palo Alto, at or prior to
the public hearing.
In compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990,
listening assistive devices are available in the Council Chambers
and Council Conference Room, Sign language interpreters will
be provided upon request with 72 hours advance notice. The
City of Palo Alto does not discriminate against individuals with
disabilities. To request accommodations to access City facilities,
services or programs, to participate at public meetings, or to
learn more about the City’s compliance with the Americans
with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), please contact the City’s
ADA Coordinator at 650.329.2550 (voice) or by e-mailing ada@
cityofpaloalto.org.

Transitions
Renee Serventi
Services were held Aug. 8 for
Renee Serventi, a teacher at Walter
Hays Elementary School
who died Aug.
4.
Ser venti,
38, died from
complications
of Type 1 diabetes, which
she had lived
with since the
age of 4, her
husband, Tony Serventi, said.
Walter Hays Principal Mary
Bussmann called Serventi “an incredibly devoted teacher who was
passionate about teaching and preparing her students academically
but also building skills to become
contributing members of society.
“The Walter Hays community is
feeling a great loss at this time,”
Bussmann said. “We send our
prayers and thoughts to her wonderful family.”
Renee and Tony Serventi moved
to Sunnyvale from Grosse Pointe,
Mich., last year, and Renee Serventi began teaching fourth and fifth
grade at Walter Hays at the start of
the 2011-12 school year.
Born July 5, 1974, in Grosse
Pointe, Renee Bommarito Serventi
was the first of four children of
Mary Margaret Felling and Vito
Bommarito. As a child she attended ADA Camp Midicha, a camp for
children with diabetes.
She attended Grosse Pointe public schools, graduating from Grosse
Pointe South High School in 1992.
She earned bachelor and master’s
degrees in autism spectrum disorders from Wayne State University.
She loved children, her husband
said. While completing her education, she worked for many years as
a nanny.
She taught in the Grosse Pointe
public schools until moving to the
Bay Area last year. As a child,
Serventi enjoyed spending time on
her ancestral family farm in Padua, Minn. She celebrated her 38th
birthday in July with her husband,
mother and dozens of aunts, uncles
and cousins. She enjoyed pottery,

Russell Wright
Russell Wright, a popular children’s gymnastics teacher, drowned
in Yosemite National Park Aug. 1.
Wright, 57,
taught Palo
Alto children
for a decade
at Gym Fit for
Little Ones
at the Lucie
Stern Community Center. He taught
toddlers and
kids up to age 12 a creative, everchanging gymnastics program that
was meant to open them up to the
joys of gymnastics and self-expression rather than turning them into
professional athletes, said his sister,
Moria Peters.
“He was teaching children how
to be children,” she said. “Rusty always tried to draw out from everyone their highest creative potential.
He had this ability to get people to
open up to the natural world.”
Peters said he was an “extraordinary father” to his 20-year-old
daughter, Monica, and his eldest
daughter, Rachelle Thomas, 28, of
Springfield, Ore.
She said he attended Aragon
High School and Walden School in
San Mateo and lived in San Mateo
with his mother, Elsie Wright. She
said his death is the hardest thing
she has ever dealt with.
“Everybody that knew him was
extremely fond of him. He had a
personality that just seemed to mix

with everybody,” she said.
He loved music and was a wellknown local guitarist for many
years, filling the home’s family
room with instruments of all kinds,
she said. He was a composer and
guitar teacher who wrote and performed avant-garde improvisational
jazz. Peters said her brother was extremely bright, but he initially had
trouble in school because of undiagnosed dyslexia. But his introduction
to guitar at age 14 and his love of
gymnastics opened up his world.
As a boy he loved to climb a large
tree in the family’s yard and walked
along the top of the backyard fence.
His agility earned him the nickname “Monkey Boy,” she said. He
would hop the fence and sneak into
the adjacent College of San Mateo
gym. He taught himself gymnastics
there, she said.
Parents whose children took
lessons from him also expressed
sadness. Gabrielle Conway said
Wright’s death is a huge loss for
the children. Her daughter, Abigail
Brown, was in his class.
“My daughter absolutely adored
Russ. Russ was so amazing. A gentle giant. My daughter loved being
free to do what she wanted in his
class. It was a class full of joy,” she
said.
Personnel at Lucie Stern on Saturday expressed shock and sadness
when they learned of his death.
He was at a Merced River swimming hole with his daughter when
currents carried him downstream.
His foot became caught between
two boulders, his sister said. His
daughter Monica was with him
for their annual trip. They loved to
swim in rivers and often went snorkeling, Peters said.
On Wednesday they were alone
in the spot near the entrance of
Yosemite when the accident occurred. His daughter sustained minor injuries while trying to rescue
him. After she realized she could
not safely free him, she sought help,
Peters said.
“It was a real ordeal. He was her
best friend and her entire world.
When they left here they drove out
of here laughing. He was probably
as happy as he ever was moments
before he died,” she said.
He is survived by his mother,
Elsie Wright; daughters, Rachelle
Thomas and Monica Wright; sister, (Nancy) Moria Peters; and “a
large and loving extended family
and many grieving friends,” Peters
said.
– Sue Dremann

Ernest Lee Bryant, Jr.
Resident of Palo Alto

Ernest Lee Bryant, Jr. passed away on July 1, 2012
after a short battle with cancer. Ernest was born on
August 11, 1946 in San Francisco, CA, the eldest
of six children. He graduated from Ravenswood
High School in E. Palo Alto in 1965 where he was
an outstanding athlete and scholar. He graduated
from the College of San Mateo in 1967 with an A.A.
Degree. Ernest held a variety of jobs while living
in the E. Palo Alto area the majority of his life,
including Raychem, Stanford Hospital, and as an
automotive mechanic. One of his favorite sayings
was, “I may give out, but I’ll never give up”.
Ernest was preceded in death by his parents
Ernest Lee Bryant, Sr. and Rosie Lee Bryant, and
sisters Regina Bryant and Linda Bowers. He is

survived by his
daughter, Adrienne
Bryant;
sisters
Patricia
Bryant
and Terry Clark;
brother
Glen
Bryant; and a host
of other relatives
and friends.
Ernest is interred in the Community Niche at
Alta Mesa Memorial Park in Palo Alto, CA. In lieu
of ﬂowers or cards, please make a donation in his
name to: Senior Adults Legal Assistance (SALA),
160 E. Virginia Street, Suite 260, San Jose, CA
95112.
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Above: Construction is underway on a new
gymnasium at Gunn High School. Six of
Palo Alto’s 17 public schools will start the
school year with construction projects on
campus.

Major construction to
greet students next
week in earliest-ever
school start
by Chris Kenrick

A

Sierra Duren

Above: Rohit Sharma and his son Sahir
Sharma peer into a classroom at Ohlone
Elementary School during a kindergarten
meet-and-greet event on Aug. 5. Left: Ruby
Zadik climbs a tree outside Ohlone during a
kindergarten meet-and-greet day.
Sierra Duren

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long with teachers, major
construction will greet many
Palo Alto students as they
head back to school next Thursday,
Aug. 16 — the earliest start to the
school year in local history.
The mid-August start reflects a
new academic calendar adopted by
the school district for 2012-13 and
2013-14.
The object of the hotly debated
calendar change was to squeeze in
the first semester before the December holidays, hence the early
start date. Most public and private
high schools in the area already
have adopted calendars with prewinter-break finals in efforts to
give students a work-free vacation.

Six of Palo Alto’s 17 public school
campuses — both high schools, all
three middle schools and Fairmeadow Elementary School — open the
school year with fenced-off hardhat zones as the school district
scrambles to modernize facilities
and create space for a flood of new
students who have come through
the doors in recent years.
In addition, a groundbreaking
for major construction at Duveneck
Elementary School is likely by
early 2013. At Ohlone Elementary
School, a new, two-story classroom
building was completed and occupied last winter.
Funds for the construction come
from the $378 million “Strong

Cover Story

From English learner to
master teacher
Understanding ‘what makes the teenage brain tick’
in the melting pot of Gunn
by Chris Kenrick

Veronica Weber

Workers pour new pavement at Terman Middle School on Aug. 3. Funds for the construction projects at six
of Palo Alto’s public schools came from the $378 million “Strong Schools” facilities bond measure, which
passed in 2008.

New classrooms are being constructed at Jordan Middle School. District enrollment has been steadily
increasing, last year reaching 12,286.

Schools” facilities bond measure
approved in 2008 by more than 77
percent of voters.
Besides adding space on existing campuses, the Board of Education is pondering where to locate
entirely new schools. If enrollment
trends continue, officials have said
a new elementary school and a new
middle school will be needed within the next five years. The venues
most often discussed are recently
acquired district property at 525
San Antonio Road, the old Garland
Elementary School campus at 870
N. California Ave., or the old Cubberley High School campus at 4000
Middlefield Road, currently leased
to the City of Palo Alto for use as a

community center.
Districtwide K-12 enrollment
— which stood at 12,286 last fall
— has been on a steady upward
trajectory since hitting a post-Baby
Boom low of 7,500 in 1989. The official headcount for 2012-13 will be
taken a few weeks into the school
year.
Palo Alto had three high schools,
three middle schools and 22 elementary schools when enrollment hit its historic high of 15,000
in 1968. Today there are two high
schools, three middle schools and
12 elementary schools. A 13th elementary campus, Greendell in
south Palo Alto, houses preschool
and adult-education programs.

Two elementary school campuses, Hoover and Juana Briones, open
the school year with new principals.
At Hoover, Katy Bimpson replaces
Susanne Scott, who retired in June.
At Juana Briones, Lisa Hickey replaces Matthew Nagle.
In total, the district employs about
800 full- and part-time teachers.
Construction crews worked overtime on some campuses to make
sure academic space would be accessible when teachers return Monday, Aug. 13, to prepare their classrooms for the arrival of students.
Below, a random handful of
teachers and administrators shared
their thoughts on the coming school
year. N

Veronica Weber

Veronica Weber

W

hen he arrived at Gunn
High School as a 14year-old newcomer in
1995, Ronen Habib spoke so
little English he was placed in
the school’s special program for
English learners.
Fast forward 17 years: Habib is
entering his eighth year of teaching, six of them at Gunn — and
all of them in English.
“Gunn was just an amazing
place to integrate into American
society and get all the skills I
needed to be successful in college in just four years,” Habib
said.
“There are definitely colleagues out there who used to be
my teachers, and they’re incredible people.”
Hebrew was the first language
of Habib, a native of Israel. And
French — he lived in Brussels
from age 8 to 14 — was his second, instilling a global outlook
even before his family arrived
in the Bay Area for his father’s
high-tech job.
“To see so much at such a
young age was a big privilege.
To learn another language, about
cultures and stuff was quite special,” said Habib, who still has a
grandfather, aunts, uncles, cousins and friends in Israel.
Habib has taught math, accounting, history and economics.
He particularly loves teaching
the history curriculum developed
by the nonprofit, Boston-based
Facing History and Ourselves.
The program asks students to
imagine themselves in historical
situations, such as events leading
up to the Holocaust, and then to
relate those situations to choices
they might face in the present.
“Facing History just understands what makes the teenage
brain tick,” he said.
“We take these case studies
and learn about the steps it took
to get to those events, and the
actions or inactions people took
when they were faced with different conditions.
“Then we can look at our own
lives and see how we’d behave in
certain conditions — try to take
case studies from history and apply them to things that occur in
school. For example, if there’s a
fight in school, what do you do?
“A lot of people, when they’re
honest, find that their actions
would not necessarily be that
clear.”
Students get hooked by Facing History, Habib said, because
“they start to see that history
doesn’t just happen, that it occurs because of actions people
like them decide to take.”
Habib won’t be teaching his-

Ronen Habib, who attended
Gunn as a new immigrant who
spoke little English, will teach
two AP economics courses and
help faculty integrate technology
into their teaching this year.
tory this fall but rather two AP
economics courses, with the
rest of his time spent as Gunn’s
“technology lead” — helping
colleagues integrate technology
into their teaching.
While not required for good
teaching, technology “can make
a great teacher even better and
really add significantly to the
curriculum and the teacher’s professional growth,” he believes.
For example, “screencasting”
apps for the iPad have enabled
students in his economics classes to divide into small groups to
create short videos to teach one
another the material.
“In microeconomics and macroeconomics there’s a lot of material for the kids to know, and
when we review for the tests it’s
always rushed,” Habib said. “I
feel like technology allows us to
take a little more time to learn,
gives the students more access to
the material.
“When a kid creates something
and sees that other kids are learning from it, it’s pretty powerful,
and there’s a huge collaborative
environment that’s created because of that.
“I think collaborating effectively will be one of the most important skills of the 21st century,
and technology allows kids to be
active participants in the learning
process.”
As a student at Gunn in the
‘90s, Habib remembers feeling
academic stress but admits “it
might be a little bit worse” today,
despite myriad school initiatives
(continued on page 20)

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Cover Story

2012

3ATURDAYS
PM s &REE !DMISSION
July 28 – Rinconada Park

Fil Lorenz Orchestra
August 4 – Mitchell Park

Wayne Wallace Latin Jazz Quintet
August 11 – California Avenue

The Unauthorized Rolling Stones
August 18 – Mitchell Park

Teens on the Green
Presented by the City of Palo Alto Arts and Sciences Division and the
Palo Alto Weekly, with additional support from Palo Alto Online, Palo
Alto Community Fund, Whole Foods, The Counter, and Gordon Biersch

ow do you help students —
especially the struggling
ones — learn to love math?
Palo Alto High School math
teacher Suz Antink wrestles with
the question on a daily basis.
“You have to keep looking at how
the students are hanging, what they
might need,” said the Palo Alto
resident, who this month begins her
30th year of teaching at Paly.
“If education stands still, it’s dead
in the water.”
Antink is famous among students
for riding a motorcycle to school —
a blue one that matches her eyes.
“It’s a real release to do something like that. When you ride a
motorcycle, you have to be in the
moment,” she said in a recent interview in Paly’s Math Resource Center, where she was working with
students over the summer.
In the classroom, Antink says she
aims to foster the “growth mindset”
theories of Stanford psychologist
Carol Dweck — that intelligence
and talent are not fixed traits, and
that even the most basic abilities
can be developed through dedication and hard work.
Her advice to struggling students:
“Believe in yourself.

Veronica Weber

Twilight
Concert
Series

Seeing math as
‘a whole gorgeous piece of art’

Suz Antik, a math teacher at
Palo Alto High School, believes
dedication and hard work can help
students’ intelligence and talent.
“Know that you can learn anything, and that learning takes time
and effort. Be patient with yourself
and get enough sleep. Make friends
with your teacher, and let the teacher

know what’s going on with you.”
For her recent PhD dissertation in
educational leadership and change,
Antink tested Dweck’s “growth
mindset” theories on geometry students at Paly.
“We worked on building a collaborative atmosphere in the classroom.
We field-tested Brainology (an online curriculum based on Dweck’s
theories), taught students about
growth mindsets and fixed mindsets
and how it works. We reiterated it
throughout the year and watched the
kids grow,” Antink said.
She concluded that, even a year later, students with the “mindset” training were earning a full letter-grade
higher than other, similar cohorts in
Algebra 2 and Calculus because they
had “learned how to learn.”
Antink herself had no trouble falling in love with mathematics, viewing
it from an early age as “gorgeous.”
As a student, she was equally passionate about Shakespeare, Chaucer,
Beowulf, leading her to double major in math and English at Sonoma
State University. Her engineer father
urged her to pursue the math route
so she’d “always have work.”
(continued on page 19)

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Page 18ÊUÊÕ}ÕÃÌÊ£ä]ÊÓä£ÓÊUÊ*>ÊÌÊ7iiÞÊUÊÜÜÜ°*>Ì"i°V

Cover Story

Making the elementary
connection
The importance of mentors and helping
teachers learn from one another
by Chris Kenrick

A

Suz Antink

(continued from page 18)

She was drawn to teaching from a
young age, when she attended Catholic school in Erie, Penn.
“I noticed the nuns got to wear
long dresses, and I thought that was
pretty cool even though some of
them were pretty mean,” she said.
Later, as a high school student in
California, Antink lost a younger
brother to leukemia. “I’m the oldest
girl, and one of the ways our family coped was I took over my mom’s
duties, getting home in time to greet
my siblings and make a home and
hearth. I’d help them with their
homework, and I really enjoyed it.”
The hardest thing about teaching,
she said, is “trying to meet the needs
of a lot of different students and
keeping things fair and balanced,
and keeping some basic rules so everybody knows how to operate.”
Antink said she feels “more support than pressure” from parents in

co, where he lives with his partner,
a customer-service officer with the
San Francisco Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.
“My partner came on a field trip
with us at the end of last year and he
said, ‘I don’t know how you do this.’
That’s what my mom says too, and
she’s the mother of seven children.
“She said, ‘I have a lot of respect
for you. I couldn’t do that.’ And that
kind of makes you feel good.”
Lindner said he’ll miss having his
own classroom this fall, for the first
time in nine years.
His advice to elementary students:
“It almost sounds like a cliché, but the
world is yours. You have the power to

L U C I L E PA C K A R D

Veronica Weber

s the oldest of seven children
growing up in Minnesota,
Matt Lindner did plenty of
“teaching” from an early age but
always planned to follow his grandparents into the dairy-farming business.
His thinking shifted after conversations with his mother during his
freshman year at the University of
Minnesota.
“I realized in talking with my
mom that my real passion was with
kids, working with my brothers and
sisters, teaching them and seeing
that growth,” he said.
Lindner switched his major to
education, began volunteering in
a first-grade classroom and never
looked back. Faced with a shortage
of teaching jobs in Minnesota when
he graduated, he moved to California to begin his career.
After teaching third and fourth
graders at Palo Verde Elementary
School for the past four years, Lindner shifts gears this fall to begin
coaching fellow teachers.
As a “teacher on special assignment,” or TOSA, he’ll travel among
elementary classrooms to model
lessons, help teachers learn how
to adapt their strategies depending
on how kids are reacting, and try
to spread new teaching ideas from
school to school.
“Teaching can be somewhat isolating — you’re in a room with 24
students all day, and that makes it
difficult to get out and see other
teachers,” Lindner said in a summer
interview. He had just returned from
an institute for reading and writing
teachers at Teachers College of Columbia University, courtesy of the
Palo Alto school district.
“Palo Alto has been trying to provide more opportunities for teach-

“I’d just moved here, had virtually
no school supplies and had two days
to get a classroom together.
“I went in on Saturday, and the
principal showed me where my
room was and said, ‘Go for it.’ I remember thinking, ‘Can I actually do
this?’ It was a big shift from when
I’d student-taught.”
Another teacher was on campus
that day and helped Lindner set up
his room.
“Having people there to support
you and say, ‘Yes, you can,’ makes
all the difference,” he said.
Lindner taught in San Jose for five
years before switching to Palo Alto
in order to be closer to San Francis-

Matt Linder, an elementary
teacher on special assignment,
will travel among schools to help
teachers develop their strategies
and to spread new ideas.
ers to be able to see each other, and
principals have been very supportive
of providing classroom coverage for
an hour and a half so a teacher can
observe another teacher’s lessons
and talk about it,” he said.
Lindner has a personal appreciation for the value of coaching and
mentoring.
As a new graduate scouring for
jobs, he was hired by San Jose’s Oak
Grove School District on a Friday
and asked to show up for class the
following Monday.
“They’d already been in session
two weeks. They had more students
show up than they’d anticipated,”
Lindner recalled.
Palo Alto but occasionally finds it
“heartbreaking” when parents have
unrealistic expectations for their
child.
“There’s nothing more painful to
a student than when a parent doesn’t
recognize who he or she is and is
always wanting something different
from their child. That’s got to be really hard on a kid.”
The highs of teaching, she said,
come when “the kids get it, and they
have that ‘aha moment’ and totally
take over the classroom and start
explaining to everybody why things
are as they are.
“It’s phenomenal when they find
value, when they come in and say,
‘We’re actually using this in physics’ — when they see math as a
whole gorgeous piece of art.”
Antink also appreciates it when
kids laugh at her jokes, “because
math teachers have great jokes,”
she said.
“And when you’re doing something as wonderful and beautiful as
math you should be laughing and
smiling a lot.” N

do amazing things, so make the most
of it. Learn everything you can. Ask
questions. Be curious.” N
On the cover: Giacomo Resmini
swings on the monkey bars at
Ohlone Elementary School during
an Aug. 5 kindergarten meet-andgreet event. Photo by Sierra Duren.

Today’s news,
sports & hot picks

C H I L D R E N ’ S H O S P I TA L

PROVIDED BY LUCILE PACKARD CHILDREN’S HOSPITAL

Your Child’s Health University
Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital offers classes and
seminars designed to foster good health and enhance
the lives of parents and children.
COMFORT TECHNIQUES FOR LABOR
For couples who have already completed Childbirth Prep, this class provides additional tools
and practice for relaxation, breathing and comfort measures for labor.
- Tuesday, September 11: 7:00 – 9:00 pm

BRINGING BABY HOME
A two-part workshop for expectant couples and new parents in their ﬁrst postpartum
trimester, this program designed by Drs. John and Julie Schwartz Gottman will assist in
preserving the couple relationship and developing the relationship between parents and baby.
- Saturday, September 15 & Sunday, September 23: 10:00 am – 3:30 pm

SIBLING PREPARATION CLASS
This class for children two years of age and older will help prepare siblings for the emotional and
physical realities of the arrival of a newborn.
- Saturday, September 22: 10:30 am – 12:00 pm

HEART TO HEART SEMINARS ON GROWING UP
Informative, humorous and lively discussions between parents and their pre-teens on puberty,
the opposite sex and growing up. Girls attend these two-part sessions with their moms and
boys attend with their dads.
- Fall dates available for Girls & Boys classes

Call (650) 724-4601 or visit calendar.lpch.org to register or obtain more
information on the times, locations and fees for these and other courses.

Nurturing kindness, resilience in middle school
‘If they’re going to make mistakes, this is the time,’ principal says

K

atherine Baker can relate to
the Type A moms in Palo
Alto — she remembers having been one herself.
“I wanted everything to be perfect for my child,” said the principal of Terman Middle School of her
daughter, now a professor in Connecticut.
“But I finally realized she’s got to
fall down, skin her knees a little bit.
It just makes her stronger and more
resilient.”
Middle school, Baker said, is just
the place for kids to do that.
“If they’re going to make mistakes, this is the time,” she said in
an interview on the Terman campus, where construction crews were
working seven days a week to make
classrooms accessible in time for
school opening next week.
“We have firm boundaries, and
we try to teach them so they don’t
make the same mistake again.”
After working with many age
groups, Baker says she’s found her
niche with 11- to 14-year-olds.
“They’re intelligent, funny, have
a great sense of humor; they’re sensitive, they’re, like, everything —
their moods go up and down, and
they kind of do everything in extremes,” she said.
Most of all, they “respond so well

to guidance — not authority and
power, but to genuine caring.”
Baker came to Palo Alto as Terman principal three years ago after
working as a teacher and principal
for 16 years in San Jose’s K-8 Oak
Grove School District.
“Opportunity brought me here,”
she said. “We were cutting back so
much (in San Jose) it was kind of
heartbreaking.
“It was very attractive to have the
resources for programs and interventions and everything you want
to do in a school district.”
Today’s middle schoolers strike
Baker as more “in charge” than she
remembers feeling during her own
junior high school years in Sheboygan, Wis.
“I was on student council, in acting and theater, but I still had a horrible insecurity complex and never
wanted to be embarrassed.”
Educators have come a long way
since then in knowing how to handle the middle-school years, she
believes.
“There’s a lot of drama, and I
think people used to think, ‘That’s
just the way it is in middle school.’
But we’re much more savvy now
about what helps children and what
they respond to.
“Kids need to be known as in-

Veronica Weber

by Chris Kenrick

Katherine Baker, principal of
Terman Middle School, believes
middle school is a good time for kids
to learn lessons from their mistakes.
dividuals. You need to know their
names, and they need to be connected to school,” she said.
At Terman this month, sixth-

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graders will be greeted with a sixday “Tiger Camp” in which they get
acclimated to the school and spend
time with every one of the 10 sixthgrade teachers.
Only after being observed and assessed at Tiger Camp are students
assigned to their classes for the year,
with an effort to make sure every
child has someone in her class she
went to elementary school with.
To address bullying — a big issue
in the middle school years — “we
have a very strong social kindness
program,” Baker said. The lessons
are taught explicitly at least once a
month.
Eighth-graders can become leaders in the TASK program (Tigers
Achieving Social Kindness), in
which they agree to be role models,
give school tours and host lunches
for new students.
To foster “more human interaction and a warmer environment

on campus,” cell phones are supposed to be turned off and out of
sight during school hours — even
at lunchtime.
“We have land lines in the office,
and they can always call home,”
Baker said.
“We encourage parents not to
text-message their kids because it
puts the student in a difficult position of trying to follow a school rule
but disobeying the parent.”
Lunchtime activities at Terman
are driven by students.
“Students get the ideas for a club,
find a teacher sponsor and have a
big sign-up day,” she said.
“There are students who raise
money for all kinds of things.
“Kids this age are much more
confident than I remember feeling.
They have great ideas and a lot of
energy. They want to make a difference, change the world. I see evidence of that every day.” N

Ronen Habib

“I’m a nice person, but I have very
high expectations for my students.”
Habib advises kids to surround
themselves with positive influences
— adults as well as peers — and
not be afraid to seek help or to ask
questions, even questions that seem
stupid.
Students need exercise and rest
and should try to strike a “healthy
balance between social life, academics and just learning for the sake
of learning.
“This could be whatever — playing a sport, listening to music, drawing, whatever. And help others.
That’s very important,” he said.
Having been a student and a
teacher at the school, Habib, not
surprisingly, is a Gunn booster.
“Gunn is a freakishly amazing
school on many levels — primarily
the students,” he said.
“The quality of the people, the
quality of the students — it just
doesn’t exist in other places.” N

(continued from page 17)

to address it.
Kids feel societal pressure to take
difficult courses, he said, quickly
adding, “That’s not pressure that
comes from the school.
“This is a greater societal issue
— not just in Palo Alto but in our
country as a whole, and certainly in
very affluent areas.”
Adding to that, high school is a
time when students move toward
being assessed mainly on performance, he said.
“I certainly express how effort is
extremely important, and I mostly
praise effort, not performance. But
when it comes down to your evaluation on how well you understand
the material, at the end of the day it
comes down to your performance,
whether you actually get it,” he
said.

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Qualified candidates will be contacted for an interview.
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Tom Zahiralis, Vice President Sales and Marketing
tzahiralis@embarcaderopublishing.com
Sahir Sharma
digs a hole in the
sand pit at Ohlone
Elementary
School during
a kindergarten
meet-and-greet on
Aug. 5.

print
Above: Daumier’s most famous
print, “Rue Transnonain, le 15
April 1834,” shows the civilian
victims of a military massacre.
Left: Victims of a revolution
against an earlier king emerge
from the grave in this 1835
Daumier print to see that the
violence has begun again. The
lithograph’s title translates to “It
was hardly worthwhile getting
killed for that!”

DAUMIER’S BITINGLY SATIRICAL
LITHOGRAPHS RECALL A
19TH-CENTURY BATTLE BETWEEN
THE ARTS AND THE KING
by Rebecca Wallace

I

t’s France in 1833, and
you really, really hate the
king. But you don’t want
to get thrown in prison for
shouting, “Down with Louis-Philippe!” in a crowded
theater.
So you go to the produce
market. You pick up a pear
and make a snide face, and
everyone around you laughs.
You feel better.
P rotesting
aut hor it y
through symbols is as old as

time. There’s the raised fist,
the peace symbol, the flag.
The Guy Fawkes masks
worn by Occupy protesters.
The elephant signs carried
by Spaniards angry at their
king for going on a pricey safari during the recession.
In France in the early
1830s, it was all about the
pear. The French word “la
poire” was already a slang
term; it was great for calling
somebody a blockhead or a

Above, this 1834 Daumier lithograph satirically depicts
Louis-Philippe I as a three-faced pear; its title translates to
“The past, the present, the future.”

dope. Then Charles Philipon, publisher of the satirical journal “La
Caricature,” noticed that the plump
King Louis-Philippe — who was
declining rapidly in popularity —
looked a lot like the fat-bottomed
fruit. His pointy hairstyle didn’t
help.
The joke took off. People drew
graffiti of pears on Notre Dame
and inside prison cells, and artists slipped tiny pears into their
artwork.
Today, about 180 years later,
framed prints are arranged on the
wall of a Cantor Arts Center gallery
in the shape of a giant pear. Each
lithograph contains an image of a
pear: Louis-Philippe’s head; the
king gathering inside a giant fruit
with his advisers, all looking like
furtive seeds; Frenchmen straining
to support a massive pear.
These and the other prints in
the new exhibition “When Art(continued on page 22)

In the 1834 print “Don’t You
Meddle With It,” a printer is
caught between two French
regimes, neither offering any hope
for freedom of the press.
ÜÜÜ°*>Ì"i°VÊUÊ*>ÊÌÊ7iiÞÊUÊÕ}ÕÃÌÊ£ä]ÊÓä£ÓÊU Page 21

Arts & Entertainment

In the 1832 print â&#x20AC;&#x153;Masks of 1831,â&#x20AC;? Daumier caricatures French
government officials, who all surround the pearlike king. (To the right
of the king is Count dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Argout, the kingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s main censor. In many prints,
Daumier likened the countâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s pointy nose to the censorâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s scissors.)

ists Attack the Kingâ&#x20AC;? come from
a specific and significant period in
French history: the five years between two times of weighty press
censorship. â&#x20AC;&#x153;La Caricatureâ&#x20AC;? was
published only for these five years,
1830 through 1835. This was also
when the noted printmaker, sculptor and painter HonorĂŠ Daumier
(1808-1879) emerged as an artist
to be reckoned with.
Half the prints in the Stanford
exhibition were done by Daumier:
biting, darkly humorous and boasting fine draftsmanship. Daumier,
Philipon and their colleagues were
young and audacious, risking â&#x20AC;&#x201D;
and sometimes enduring â&#x20AC;&#x201D; prosecution for printing just what they
thought during these tumultuous
times.
The previous king, Charles X
(1757-1836), had become hated in
France because of high unemployment, low wages and rising grain
prices, according to an exhibit
card. In 1830, a violent uprising
called the Three Glorious Days
broke out, and Charles abdicated.
He had no clear heir, and LouisPhilippe I (1773-1850) was seen as
a citizen king who could be a compromise between the working class
and the wealthy.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;It didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t quite work,â&#x20AC;? said Elizabeth Kathleen Mitchell, the exhibitionâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s curator, standing in the gallery on a recent morning. â&#x20AC;&#x153;It was a
complicated time for France.â&#x20AC;?
Mitchell gestured to one Daumier
print that illustrates the tough position the artists found themselves
in. Titled â&#x20AC;&#x153;Ne vous y frottez pas!!
(Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t you meddle with it!!)â&#x20AC;? the
lithograph depicts a finely chiseled
printer, almost Social Realist in his
sturdy stance. At his right, Charles

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X swoons into the arms of his advisers; at his left, Louis-Philippe
charges menacingly toward the
printer.
The artist is â&#x20AC;&#x153;trapped between
two regimesâ&#x20AC;? but not ready to give
up without a fight, Mitchell said.
His clenched fists seem to be vibrating with defiance.
Indeed, there was something to
be defiant against. Once on the
throne, Louis-Philippe quickly retreated from his pledge to uphold
the freedom of the press guaranteed in the Charter of 1830. â&#x20AC;&#x153;As
he started getting criticized in the
press, he started putting laws and
bureaucracy in place,â&#x20AC;? Mitchell
said.
An 1831 â&#x20AC;&#x153;La Caricatureâ&#x20AC;? print by
the artist Auguste Desperret (18061862) reflects the mood of the
times. Ironically titled â&#x20AC;&#x153;La Charte
est une vĂŠritĂŠ ... donc, la presse est
parfaitement libre! (The Charter is
fact ... therefore, the press is perfectly free!)â&#x20AC;? the lithograph depicts
a printing press being quashed by
weights, quoting the kingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s words
back to him.
This is the first Cantor exhibition for Mitchell, who previously
worked at the Museum of Fine Arts
in Boston. Sheâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s clearly pleased
with the display, which features
50 satirical prints, a photograph
of Daumier and yellowed issues
of â&#x20AC;&#x153;La Caricature.â&#x20AC;? The walls are
painted royal burgundy and pearcolored, and Mitchell had all the
printsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; frames gilded.
The items come from the collection of the Cantor, which owns
the entire five-year run of â&#x20AC;&#x153;La
Caricature,â&#x20AC;? Mitchell said. The
museum has hundreds of prints
from the journal in its collection,
along with many of Daumierâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s later
works, which included sculptures
and paintings and tended to be
lighter in style. Their satire made
fun of the bourgeois lifestyle, for
example, instead of the rulers.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;I was downstairs in storage going through boxes of prints,â&#x20AC;? Mitchell said. â&#x20AC;&#x153;There are so many different stories that could be told.â&#x20AC;?
The story of 1830-1835 got darker over the five years as the fight
between the kingâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s July Monarchy
and the satirists heated up.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;The July Monarchy confiscated
28 issues of â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;La Caricature,â&#x20AC;&#x2122; broke

lithographic stones, and prosecuted
several staff members,â&#x20AC;? one exhibit card reads. Daumier served six
months in jail, and Philipon made
11 appearances in court and served
a total of 20 months behind bars.
The publisher reportedly came up
with his pear symbol while testifying in court.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;They got arrested; they got
fined; they got brought into court,â&#x20AC;?
Mitchell said of Daumier and his
cohorts. â&#x20AC;&#x153;They were playing a very
serious game. But they were doing
what they thought was the right
thing to do.â&#x20AC;?
All along, the artistsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; satirical
voices were getting harsher and
their images sharper. In 1834,
Daumier made his most famous
print, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Rue Transnonain,â&#x20AC;? after a
worker uprising in Paris turned
bloody. Soldiers, thinking a sniper
had fired on them from a building
on Rue Transnonain, stormed the
building and killed indiscriminately, an exhibit card reads. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Daumierâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s meticulously drawn reaction
to the event presents multiple generations of family, victims of the
soldiersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; vicious retaliation, lying
dead in their home.â&#x20AC;?
In the print, a man has fallen dead
on his child, with bloody footprints
scattered about. The image is not
as gruesome as it could be; at first
glance, the man could be sleeping.
Yet the print is far more vicious
than any image showing the king
as a grotesque, bulging pear.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the most scathing image related to Louis-Philippe, and yet it
doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t depict him,â&#x20AC;? Mitchell said.
In the end, the king lost all patience with the press. In 1835, the
French government passed the
September Laws. They banned
political images totally, and â&#x20AC;&#x153;La
Caricatureâ&#x20AC;? shut down.
One of the last prints published
in the journal was Daumierâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s eerie
image of people climbing out of a
grave. Titled â&#x20AC;&#x153;Câ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ĂŠtait vraiment bien
la peine de nous faire tuer! (It was
hardly worthwhile getting killed
for that!)â&#x20AC;? the lithograph represents victims of the Three Glorious
Days revolution against Charles X,
reborn later in 1835.
They emerge, open-mouthed, to
see soldiers attacking citizens and
clergymen doing nothing to help.
Meet the new king, same as the old
king. N
What: â&#x20AC;&#x153;When Artists Attack the King:
HonorĂŠ Daumier and â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;La Caricature,â&#x20AC;&#x2122;
1830-1835,â&#x20AC;? a new exhibition of prints
and newspapers at the Cantor Arts
Center
Where: 328 Lomita Drive, Stanford
University
When: The museum is open 11 a.m.
to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, and until 8 p.m. on Thursday.
Cost: Free
Info: Go to museum.stanford.edu or
call 650-723-4177.

READ MORE ONLINE

www.PaloAltoOnline.com
For more images by HonorĂŠ
Daumier, including a vivid 1860 oil
painting called â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Drama,â&#x20AC;? check
out Weekly arts editor Rebecca
Wallaceâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s blog, Ad Libs, which
is now in a spiffy new location on
Tumblr. Go to adlibs.paloaltoonline.com.

Mission Trip Sunday
Reflections by the Mission Trip participants
An Open and Affirming Congregation of the United Church of Christ
Michelle Le

ust north of Highway 101, tucked into the back
corner of a squat, unassuming strip of Mountain
View office space, Andrew Heine hunches over the
piano, listing slightly to the quick rhythm of Ramon
Esquivel’s kick, snare and high-hat; and to the bouncy,
rapid punches of Jared Milos’ bass guitar. Heine tickles
the keys, coaxing out chords and melodic accents that
dance around the beat, linking with Ryan Kingsmith’s
acoustic guitar work, swinging about in the higher registers, as he croons in a quiet, gravely voice.
This is Dogcatcher. The Mountain View-based alternative rock band recently released its second album,
“It’s Easy”: a six-song set peppered with jazz-funk syncopation and rough-around-the-edges indie charm. The
Dogcatcher musicians are the “artists-in-residence” at
Red Rock Coffee in downtown Mountain View, performing regularly at the Castro Street cafe.
Dogcatcher recently released its second album, “It’s
Easy,” recording it at the band’s practice space: the Red
Rock Recording Company’s recording studio, where
Kingsmith works part time as an audio engineer.
The Bay Area has spawned its fair share of rock ‘n’
roll legends. The Grateful Dead began its long strange
trip in San Francisco in 1965; The Doobie Brothers
came smoking out of San Jose in 1970; and Green Day
came out of the late-’80s and early-’90s East Bay punk
scene.
Obviously, talent factored heavily in all these bands’
respective success stories, but so did access to the clubs
where they were able to build their fan base. Many suburban bands serious about making it in the music biz
will relocate to the nearest big city in order to be closer
to the bars and clubs, and to the other artists and musicians inhabiting these urban centers.
But Heine and his cohorts make no bones about it:
Dogcatcher is a Mountain View band, and plans are for
it to remain that way. For the past year they have played
at Red Rock Coffee on the first Saturday of each month.
Their next Red Rock gig is scheduled for Sept. 1.
“We feel pretty patriotic about Mountain View,” Heine says. They say they like the slower, laid-back pace of
this city, a preference that is reflected in their tunes and
perhaps even in the title of their latest release.
“It’s cool being a little bit outside, because it keeps
you a bit isolated,” he said.
If the band enjoys the Midpeninsula community, the
locals seem to appreciate the musicians in return. Dogcatcher frequently plays shows outside of Heine and Esquivel’s house in the Old Mountain View neighborhood.
People come from the surrounding blocks to listen to

Applications NOT accepted

“There’s no place
like home.”

Andrew Heine rehearses at the Red Rock Recording
Company in Mountain View.
them play, and Heine said he even gets requests to leave
the front door open when he is practicing the piano.
At the end of the day, the guys from Dogcatcher say
that as long as they can play a few shows here and there
and have some fun, that’s all they really care about.
And if it just so happens that their friends and neighbors
want to listen to them while they do it — well, that’s
even better.
“I think, no matter what, the plan is to just keep playing and keep making music,” Heine says. N
Info: Dogcatcher is scheduled to perform with the San
Francisco band Sunrunners starting at 8 p.m. Sept. 1 at
Red Rock Coffee, 201 Castro St., Mountain View. Admission is free. For more information, go to redrockcoffee.org
or call 650-967-4473.

Inspirations is a resource for ongoing religious services
and special events. To inquire about or to reserve space in
Inspirations, please contact Blanca Yoc
at 223-6596 or email byoc@paweekly.com

Nick Veronin is a staff writer at the Mountain View
Voice, one of the Weekly’s sister papers.
ÜÜÜ°*>Ì"i°VÊUÊ*>ÊÌÊ7iiÞÊUÊÕ}ÕÃÌÊ£ä]ÊÓä£ÓÊU *>}iÊ23

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AL ZHEIMERâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; S & DEMENTIA

Black raspberries glow and grow on a branch in Kevin and Monica Lynchâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Palo Alto backyard.

How sweet it is
Rare mulberries and other produce are the tender fruits of one familyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s labor

act: There is no such thing as
a mulberry bush.
Donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t believe it? Ask Kevin
Lynch of metroMulberry, Palo Altoâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s local mulberry grower.
Mulberries actually grow on trees.
Very large trees. And the berries
boast a different kind of sweetness
than any other. Not quite as strong
or flavorful as a blackberry and not
quite as watery or mild as a blueberry.
Kevinâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s mulberries are as delicious as they are rare, and he and
his family grow them in their own
backyard, sans fertilizer or pesticides.
The Lynches exude a different
kind of sweetness, too. They have
lived in Palo Alto for nine years,
turning what Kevin called a â&#x20AC;&#x153;rundown piece of junkâ&#x20AC;? house into
a lush utopia. The same year they
moved, they planted their first mulberry tree out front. Since then, they
have planted upwards of 20 more in
their backyard, plus plums, apples,
blackberries, lemons, black raspberries, apricots and others.
More recently, Kevin created
metroMulberry, selling fresh mulberries and other homegrown fruits
at the downtown Palo Alto farmers
market and to local restaurants, such
as Quattro at the Four Seasons Ho-

tel in East Palo Alto and Pampas in
Palo Alto.
Kevin, a seventh-grade science
teacher, builds and grows everything
himself. From the rows of mulberry
trees to the outdoor pizza oven to
the familyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s current kitchen remodel, Kevin is completely hands-on.
His wife, Monica, is also a teacher, and their two sons â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Osmanthus (â&#x20AC;&#x153;Osiâ&#x20AC;? for short), 10, and Halo,
9 â&#x20AC;&#x201D; seem precocious, relishing the
attention their familyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s micro-farm
has brought them. During a recent
visit, Osi itched to show off his berry knowledge, which was undeniably impressive. He and his brother
put together a plate displaying each
kind of berry that he and his family grow, noting the particulars of
each type.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;These are unusually sweet this
time,â&#x20AC;? Osi said, pointing to the Illinois Everbearing Mulberries, which
were laid out next to the variety of
other fruits he and his brother had
gathered. Also on display were frozen mulberries drizzled in homemade honey and black raspberries.
(Osi was careful to point out that
black raspberries are nothing like
blackberries.)
Picking mulberries for the Lynches seems as much a part of their lives
as sleeping or breathing. Even their

rapport surrounding the towering
plants is breezy and nonchalant.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Do you have a mulberry stain on
you?â&#x20AC;? Kevin asked his wife as they
stood under one of five rows of mulberry trees in their yard.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Yeah,â&#x20AC;? she said, looking down
at her arm and giving a contagious
smile.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Awesome,â&#x20AC;? Kevin said with a
chuckle.
Mulberry-juice stains are just a
part of being backyard berry growers. Kevin and his family spend
hours â&#x20AC;&#x153;ticklingâ&#x20AC;? their mulberries
down from the branches.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;They are like the prodigal son,â&#x20AC;?
Kevin said about each mulberry.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;Every time one drops, I get upset.â&#x20AC;?
Monica nodded her head, saying she sometimes goes digging for
fallen berries. â&#x20AC;&#x153;Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s such a tender
business,â&#x20AC;? she said, placing a fresh
mulberry into her picking bucket.
The tenderness of mulberries
is what makes them impossible to
find at supermarkets, Kevin said.
The berries practically melt in your
mouth as you eat them, as if they
were more juice than fruit.
The Lynchesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; mulberries can be
purchased at the farmers market
every Saturday in downtown Palo
Alto, though they sell out early ev-

Eating Out

Info: Recipe taken from metroMulberry’s Facebook page. For more
information about the company, go
to metromulberries.com.

ENTRY DEADLINE IS
FRIDAY, AUGUST 3
DEADLINE

EXTENDED!

For entr y form and rules:
www.PaloAltoOnline.com

BUY 1 ENTREE
AND GET
THE 2ND ONE
Veronica Weber

ery week. “I never have enough to
sell,” Kevin said.
But the berry business is more of
a side project for Kevin and his family. They aren’t in it for the money.
“It’s a real social thing,” Kevin said
about the market. He said the family has made friends with returning
customers, other vendors and local
chefs who buy their produce.
Involving their sons is another important part of the Lynches’ farm.
“It’s precious,” Monica said. “They
appreciate the labor.”
For her, knowing where their food
comes from and understanding the
importance of eating locally and organically are invaluable lessons for
her children.
And even when selling to chefs at
well-known restaurants, Kevin said
he appreciates his relationships with
them more than the fact that they
will pay almost any price for his
precious mulberries. He mentioned
Nikki Baverso and Marco Fossati,
the executive chefs at Pampas and
Quattro, respectively, saying he and
they are on the same wavelength.
“You just gotta love eating and
making food and making people
happy,” he said. N

Palo Alto Weekly Photo Contest

The fruits of their labor: black raspberries, mulberries, Pakistani
mulberries and apricots from Kevin and Monica Lynch’s Palo Alto
backyard.
Mulberry cocktail
Ingredients:
Ice
5 to 10 mulberries
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon sugar
1 scant pinch of salt
1 shot of triple sec
2 shots vodka and just enough water to help it all move around
Place all ingredients into a cocktail shaker. Shake vigorously to
break up the berries for flavor and
color. Strain out into each glass,
then top with a shot or two of bubbly water. Garnish with a fresh mulberry in each glass.

COURSE
5K and 10K loop courses over Palo Alto Baylands levee, through the marshlands by the light of the Harvest
Moon! Course is flat, USAT&F certified (10k run only) on levee and paved roads. Water at all stops. Course map
available at www.PaloAltoOnline.com.

REGISTRATIONS & ENTRY FEE

Event Sponsors

Adult Registration (13 +) registration fee is $30 per entrant by 9/14/12. Includes a long-sleeved t-shirt. Youth
Registration (6 - 12) registration is $20 per entrant by 9/14/12. Includes a long-sleeved t-shirt. Youth (5 and
under) run free with an adult, but must be registered through Evenbrite with signed parental guardian waiver, or
may bring/fill out a signed waiver to race-night registration. Late Registration fee is $35 for adults, $25 for youth
from 9/15 - 9/26. Race night registration fee is $40 for adult; $30 for youth from 6 to 8pm. T-shirts available
only while supplies last. Refunds will not be issued for no-show registrations and t-shirts will not be held.
MINORS: If not pre-registered, minors under 18 MUST bring signed parental/waiver form on race night.

COMPUTERIZED RESULTS BY A Change of Pace
Chip timing results will be posted on PaloAltoOnline.com by 11pm race night. Race organizers are not
responsible for incorrect results caused by incomplete/incorrect registration forms.

AWARDS/PRIZES/ENTERTAINMENT
Top three finishers in each division. Prize giveaways and refreshments. Pre-race warmups
by Noxcuses Fitness, Palo Alto

BENEFICIARY
Palo Alto Weekly Holiday Fund. A holiday-giving fund to benefit Palo Alto area non-profits and charitable
organizations. In April 2012, 55 organizations received a total of $353,000 (from the 2011-2012
Holiday Fund.)

MORE INFORMATION
Call (650) 463-4920, (650) 326-8210, email MoonlightRun@paweekly.com
or go to www.PaloAltoOnline.com.
For safety reasons, no dogs allowed on course for the 5K and 10K runs. They are
welcome on the 5K walk only. No retractable leashes. Bring your own clean-up bag.
Jogging strollers welcome in the 5K walk or at the back of either run.

(Century 16, Century 20) “I want a real marriage
again.” With those words in the dramedy “Hope
Springs,” Meryl Streep’s housewife throws the gauntlet before her husband of 31 years, played by Tommy
Lee Jones.
Despite the film’s title, which sounds suspiciously
like a spoiler, hope could well come from these two
people freeing themselves from a broken union. Can
this marriage be saved? Streep’s Kay Soames believes
it can, by roping husband Arnold into a weeklong program run by “You Can Have the Marriage You Want”
author Dr. Bernard Feld (Steve Carell).
Dragged into Great Hope Springs, a quaint Maine
fishing village, Omaha accountant Arnold immediately goes on the defensive, shifting gears from terse
to out-and-out cranky. Everyone and everything else is
the problem, and he’s come only out of fear that Kay
would otherwise walk out on him for good.
She’s learned to be a little afraid of her husband, or
of triggering his displeasure. Though he’s not abusive,
his has become a practiced neglect: The couple sleeps
in separate rooms, with no more sexual contact than a
morning peck on the cheek.
Feld gently forces Kay and Arnold to confront their
issues, primarily the erosion of communication and
the roots of their sexual schism. The doctor also assigns them “sexercises” to reconnect them physically.
Though Streep’s effort to save the marriage is half
the battle, sexually frank screenwriter Vanessa Taylor wisely doesn’t absolve her of responsibility for the
couple’s doldrums; Kay’s realization of partial culpability gives Streep an opportunity for a subtly painful
moment of truth.
The master class in acting put on by Streep and the
particularly pitch-perfect Jones is the big draw here.
While Carell, like his character, expertly facilitates,
the leads put themselves under the microscope, finding
fascinating rhythms in their give-and-takes, and speaking volumes with body language. As a result, “Hope
Springs” turns out to be a different kind of mainstream
movie, wielding star power to turn a giant, unsparing
mirror on its target audience: in this case, baby boomers in stale marriages.
And so “Hope Springs” evinces a certain kind of
bravery, with its relationship-confrontation subject
matter and its consistent refusal to “open up” the story
with, say, a subplot involving Carell and his own marriage or, indeed, any subplot at all. Instead, there’s a
weirdly riveting intensity — and a real sense of privilege — to the way the movie takes us into squirmy
private moments and focuses nearly every scene on the
sometimes funny, more often sad dynamic between the
two lead characters.
Director David Frankel (“The Devil Wears Prada”),
who inherited the project when Mike Nichols unfortunately departed it, shows a tone-deaf allegiance to
intrusive pop music that exacerbates a broader tonal
imbalance. A handful of comic flourishes lean toward
jokiness at odds with the film’s greater scheme, of dramatic cultivated awkwardness between two people facing hard truths. Also, one might well wish for a chink
in the armor of Carell’s too-perfect shrink. But the
movie’s countercultural commitment to character and
performance is enough to give “Hope” a try.
Rated PG-13 for mature thematic content involving
sexuality. One hour, 40 minutes.
— Peter Canavese

Killer Joe ---

(Aquarius) Warning: The film “Killer Joe” contains
brutal violence, an obscene act performed with a leg
of fried chicken, and such lines as “Do you want me to
wear your face?”

It’s also the work of a Pulitzer-Prize-winning playwright and an Oscar-winning director, slumming in
nihilism and trailer-trash Texas. Billed as “William
Friedkin’s film of Tracy Letts’ ‘Killer Joe,’” the NC-17
picture amounts to an ideal adaptation of Letts’ first
play, a merrily sleazy black-humor melodrama culminating in the most demented family dinner this side of
“Titus Andronicus.”
Whether “Killer Joe” is worthy material to begin
with is questionable. It doesn’t run much deeper than
“man’s inhumanity to man” (or woman), and its sick
delight in torturing its characters is palpable. But Friedkin and his cast certainly suck the marrow out of it,
with relish.
Matthew McConaughey gives a mightily impressive
controlled performance as the title character, a Dallas
detective who doubles as a contract killer. Hired by
dangerously-in-debt Chris Smith (Emile Hirsch) and
his father Ansel (Thomas Haden Church) to kill Chris’
mother, Joe smells the kind of situation it’s probably
better to walk away from, but, ay, there’s a rub: Chris’
addled young sister Dottie (Juno Temple), whom Joe
immediately desires. In lieu of payment, Joe will take
Dottie, thank you very much.
As per the tradition ranging from Euripides through
the Elizabethans and Jacobeans and straight through to
Quentin Tarantino and Martin McDonagh, blood will
have blood, and family is no object to looking after
number one. (“It’s all anyone really cares about, if you
think of it,” Ansel sighs.) The only morally excusable
character in “Killer Joe” is the evidently crazy one,
Dottie, who accepts the dregs of humanity around her
for what they are.
Letts is a not-untalented dramatist, but he built the
play mostly for shock value, and as such it tests one’s
tolerance for systematic degradation of human life.
Then again, some people like that sort of thing.
Even though “Killer Joe” plays sort of like “Wild
at Heart” without the love, sympathy and wonder, the
acting is superb, and Friedkin expertly stages Letts’
screenplay for the camera of five-time Oscar nominee
Caleb Deschanel. Hirsch gives good dim desperation;
the deadpan Church again proves hysterically funny
and surprisingly moving as an utter failure; and Temple
and the always fierce Gina Gershon (as Ansel’s wife)
are intensely believable and unflinching as the women
the men treat like dogs.
Abuse of women is partly the point, to the degree
there is one, and so are the ways in which power is
given up by the weak and taken by the shrewd. (Joe
significantly alludes to how Oklahoma just plain gave
up land.)
Friedkin’s pretty shrewd himself, in how he teases
out the humor without indulging Letts’ immature glibness, and how he sidesteps Bible Belt baptism to waterboard us in the sewer of selfish human nature.
Rated NC-17 for graphic disturbing content involving violence and sexuality, and a scene of brutality.
One hour, 43 minutes.
— Peter Canavese

The Bourne Legacy --

(Century 16, Century 20) Meet the new Bourne,
same as the old Bourne. That’s the impression left by
“The Bourne Legacy,” a would-be franchise refresher
in which Jeremy Renner grabs the baton from Matt
Damon.
The new movie is directed and co-written by Tony
Gilroy (“Michael Clayton”), who has screenwriting
credit on all three of the previous films starring Matt
Damon as Jason Bourne. And it can be said for Gilroy
and “The Bourne Legacy” that they do a decent job of
convincing us that, for over two hours, we’re watching
something other than a plate of reheated leftovers. But
we’re not.
(continued on next page)

â&#x20AC;&#x153;ONE OF THE BEST MOVIES OF THE YEAR!â&#x20AC;?
RICHARD ROEPER

â&#x20AC;&#x153;ONE HELL OF A MOVIE!â&#x20AC;?
ROGER EBERT

HHHH!

â&#x20AC;&#x153;ONE OF THE MOST SATISFYING
MOVIES OF THE YEAR!â&#x20AC;?
MICK LASALLE, SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE

MATTHEW McCONAUGHEY

EMILE HIRSCH

#KillerJoe

STARTS FRIDAY,

AUGUST 10

VIEW THE TRAILER AT FACEBOOK.COM/KILLERJOETHEMOVIE

PAUL
ZOE
ANTONIO
ANNETTE
STEVE
ELLIOTT
CHRIS

DANO
K AZAN
BANDERAS
BENING
COOGAN
GOULD
MESSINA

Everything in this film youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve seen
before, and quite recently, whether it
be recycled from the â&#x20AC;&#x153;Bourneâ&#x20AC;? trilogy or even Joe Wrightâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s â&#x20AC;&#x153;Hanna,â&#x20AC;?
fer gosh sakes. What is this movie
about? A chemically enhanced super
soldier â&#x20AC;&#x201D; letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s call him Aaron Cross
(Renner) â&#x20AC;&#x201D; discovers his masters
have turned on him. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s the spy that
went out in the cold. (Literally. He
spends the first leg of the picture in
Alaska.)
Cross tracks down Marta Shearing (Rachel Weisz), the only surviving doctor who used to maintain
him; now she too has been targeted
for a government cleanup. Without
his â&#x20AC;&#x153;chems,â&#x20AC;? Cross has begun to degrade, so he grabs Marta and starts
running around the world to evade
capture and secure survival. Meanwhile, an army of character actors,
led by alpha character actor Edward
Norton, barks at monitors and each
other.
Universal Pictures and Gilroy donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t
take any chances here: Tin rooftops
will be dashed upon, blue filters will
be applied liberally to the photography, and man and woman will speak
breathlessly to, and sexually imprint
on, each other, as they bond on the
lam. The familiar action includes a
few swift bone-crunchings of outmatched security men and a couple of
dodge-and-duck third-person shooter

sequences. When the story threatens
to fall apart but good, Gilroy lets a
dog off a leash (another super soldier
with â&#x20AC;&#x153;diminished empathyâ&#x20AC;?) to justify a chase climax.
Renner and Weisz are as solid as
one might respectively expect, but
Gilroy doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t make us care much
about them, or say anything more
pointed about the state of American
covert affairs than â&#x20AC;&#x153;We are morally
indefensible and absolutely necessary.â&#x20AC;? Instead, the film expends acres
of talk on military doublespeak and
technobabble. As Scott Glennâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s CIA
director confesses early on, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve
kind of lost my perspective on whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
possible.â&#x20AC;?
Just remember, kids, youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not
paranoid if theyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re really out to get
you ... or your movie dollars.
Rated PG-13 for violence and action. Two hours, 15 minutes.
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Peter Canavese

The Campaign --1/2

(Century 16, Century 20) Will Ferrell and Zach Galifianakis bring their
boundary-pushing comedic sensibilities to the world of politics with this
uneven chuckler. The strong cast (including John Lithgow and Dan Aykroyd) and topical plot help make for
a hilarious first hour. But â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Campaignâ&#x20AC;? eventually fizzles beneath a
spattering of raunchy humor that too

D I S C OV E R T H E M O S T

MAGICAL
FI L M OF T H E Y EAR
â&#x20AC;&#x153;A BLAST OF

SHEER IMPROBABLE JOY.â&#x20AC;?
A.O. SCOTT

â&#x20AC;&#x153;A magical, MODERN-DAY LOVE STORY,
one with razor-sharp edges and a tender heart.â&#x20AC;?
â&#x20AC;&#x153;INGENIOUS AND DELIGHTFUL... Zany and sweet.â&#x20AC;?

â&#x20AC;&#x153;A SWEET, TRIPPY COMEDY.â&#x20AC;?

often misses the mark.
Ferrell plays North Carolina-based
U.S. Rep. Cam Brady as sort of an
amalgam of George H.W. Bush and
Bill Clinton. Brady has long run
unopposed in his district and again
looks destined for re-election despite
an episode of infidelity. The greedy
tycoon Motch brothers (Lithgow and
Aykroyd) are eager to supplant Brady
with a candidate who will support
their agenda, and turn to the oblivious and awkward Marty Huggins
(Galifianakis), the son of a wealthy
businessman.
Brady is politically savvy and embarrasses Huggins at every opportunity â&#x20AC;&#x201D; until the Motch brothers hire
shady campaign manager Tim Wattley (Dylan McDermott in a terrific
performance) to transform Huggins
from frumpy to ferocious. Bradyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
own campaign manager, Mitch (Jason Sudeikis), struggles to reign in
his candidate, who begins to lose
control as Huggins moves up in the
polls. Ethics, integrity and tact are
thrown by the wayside as the rivals
trade barbs in full view.
The film enjoys its funniest moments while Huggins is learning
how to be a politician. Wattley is determined to turn the soft-spoken and
somewhat effeminate Huggins into
a â&#x20AC;&#x153;real American,â&#x20AC;? including redesigning the familyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s living room to
feature a gun rack, and supplanting
Hugginsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; beloved pugs with more
â&#x20AC;&#x153;pro-Americanâ&#x20AC;? breeds. Hugginsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;
discomfort leads to a slew of laughs.
In contrast, Ferrellâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Brady is a
live-wire riot. He is an irresponsible,
womanizing lush, and while that sort
of character makes for good comedy,
it is difficult to care about him. Seeing Lithgow and Aykroyd together as
brothers is a particular treat, and the
filmmakers do well in not pandering
to one particular side of the political
spectrum. In fact, part of the movieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s
flair comes in avoiding actual politics
(when an intern brings up a real political issue, Brady kicks him out of
the campaign headquarters).
Where the film falters is in its
script. Winning scenes trade time
with squirm-inducing moments, such
as several tasteless political ads courtesy of both candidates. There is some
smart social commentary tucked in,
but itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tough to take seriously given
the pictureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s crude undertones.
â&#x20AC;&#x153;The Campaignâ&#x20AC;? shows a great
deal of promise and is a worthwhile
viewing for Ferrell and Galifianakis
fans. But, not unlike some politicians,
it proves unable to live up to its own
potential.
Rated R for language, crude sexual
content and brief nudity. One hour,
25 minutes.
â&#x20AC;&#x201D; Tyler Hanley

STANFORD ADDS COACH . . . Former UMass star and Olympic gold
medalist Danielle Henderson was
added to the staff of Stanford softball
coach John Rittman Wednesday.
She takes over for Trisha Ford, who
left the program in June to become
the head coach at Fresno State. Henderson spent the past two seasons
as an assistant at Ohio State. “We
are extremely excited to add Danielle
to our coaching staff,” Rittman said.
“She has a complete understanding of
what it takes to compete and perform
at the highest level both as a player
and a coach.” Henderson played with
the 2000 Sydney Olympic gold medal
team.

www.PASportsOnline.com
For expanded daily coverage of college
and prep sports, please see our new
site at www.PASportsOnline.com

his time it didn’t even get
to overtime as Carli Lloyd
scored in each half to lead the
United States women’s soccer team
past Japan, 2-1, in the gold medal
game of the 2012 London Olympic
Games on Thursday.
Relegated to the bench before the
Olympics and forced into action by
injury, Lloyd delivered as the U.S.
claimed Olympic gold for the fourth
time in five opportunities.
She scored on a header in the
eighth minute, and with her right

foot in the 53rd, in front of 80,203
fans, an Olympic record for a women’s soccer game. A world record
90,185 spectators watched the U.S.
women win the 1999 World Cup at
the Rose Bowl in Pasadena.
The Japanese beat the U.S. on
penalty kicks at last year’s World
Cup, which left many Americans
stunned.
They took advantage of their second chance, just Lloyd took advantage of her opportunity.
Lloyd was benched during ex-

SPORTS

The Gold Standard remains
with American women
Walsh Jennings and May Treanor earn third straight Olympic title
f one didn’t know any better, the
way Stanford grad Kerri Walsh
Jennings and Misty May-Treanor celebrated their third Olympic
gold medal in women’s beach volleyball reminded you of a couple of
teenagers at a rock concert.
They were just reminding us that
Olympic fervor is doing well, thank
you, and then even the most experienced of all beach volleyball players
can still act like kids in sand.
“It doesn’t feel real, Walsh said.
“I am scared that I might wake up
tomorrow and discover that we have
to replay that match. It didn’t feel
like that last time.”
Extending their Olympic winning
streak to 21 matches and improving

I

to 42-1 in sets, Walsh Jennings and
May-Treanor beat fellow Americans
Jennifer Kessy and April Ross 2116, 21-16 on Wednesday in London
for the gold medal.
“It’s a dream come true,” said
Walsh, who plans on continuing
her beach volleyball career. “To
win, you have to have the mindset
to win.”
Kessy and Ross were in their first
Olympic competition.
“It is one thing to play an Olympic
final and another to play one with
people you know so well,” Walsh
said. “It ups the stress levels and
anxiety levels. I was more nervous
(continued on page 31)

London2012

READ MORE ONLINE

hibition matches leading up to the
Olympics. Lauren Cheney started
instead. Center midfielder Shannon
Boxx, a defensive anchor, injured a
hamstring in the 4-2 victory against
France. Lloyd took on a defensive
role that wasn’t really her style.
When Cheney got hurt, Boxx returned to the center and Lloyd was
moved forward.
The U.S. women won all six
games in this tournament, coming

Rick Eymer
aggie Steffens was at it
again, scoring five times
to lead the United States
women’s water polo team to a 8-2
victory over Spain in the gold medal
game of the 2012 London Olympic
Games on Thursday.
Steffens, who enters Stanford
as a freshman this fall, recorded a
tournament-best 21 goals to help
the Americans win their first gold
medal in the event and send Stanford grad Brenda Villa and Cal grad
Heather Petri, who both scored, off
as champions.
Team USA had two silver medals and a bronze in its collection
through the first three Olympic
Games to include women’s water
polo. Villa, age 32, and Petri, age
34, were there each time a last second goal beat the Americans. Both
have said they are retiring after this
Olympic Games.
Steffens, the youngest player on
the team at 19, made sure her older
teammates would not leave without
gold again.
Mountain View native Adam
Krikorian, who coached at UCLA
before taking the Olympic job, was
thrown into the pool afterward as the
final horn sounded to send the players and USA fans into a delerium.
The game was tied at 2-2 early
in the second quarter when Maggie
Steffens, taking a pass from older
sister Jessica Steffens, scored the
goal that put the Americans ahead
to stay.
That was part of a streak of seven
straight goals for the U.S., which
was content to run the clock out
most of the fourth quarter.
Stanford senior Melissa Seidemann also scored for the Americans, who also featured Cardinal
junior Annika Dries on defense.

John Todd

CARDINAL CORNER . . . The Stanford field hockey team held its first
official practice on Thursday. Stanford is set to host three exhibition
matches, tentatively slated for Aug.
12, 14 and 18. Stanford’s 18-game
regular-season slate includes eight
contests to be played at the Varsity
Turf, beginning with the home opener
on Aug. 24 against La Salle in what
represents the Cardinal’s earliest start
to a season in school history ... Defending national champion Stanford
has been projected to win a fourth
consecutive Pac-12 women’s soccer
title by a vote of conference coaches.
Stanford, which opens its season
Aug. 17 against visiting Santa Clara,
received all but two first-place votes,
though coaches could not vote for
their own team. UCLA received the
others and is predicted to finish second, with Cal third and Oregon State
fourth. Stanford will play at UCLA on
Oct. 28 and at Cal on Nov. 4 in backto-back matches, and Oregon State
comes to Laird Q. Cagan Stadium on
Sept. 27. Stanford (25-0-1 overall and
11-0 in the Pac-12 last year) enters
the season on a 31-match conference
winning streak, the third-longest alltime in collegiate women’s soccer. ...
Football fans can catch a preview of
the 2012 Stanford Cardinal on Saturday, as the team’s seventh practice
of training camp will be open to the
public. Saturday’s practice session
will begin at 9 a.m. on Elliott Field and
conclude at approximately 11 a.m.
Stanford football will host its annual
Open House event on Sunday from
10 a.m. to 3 p.m. at Stanford Stadium
and Dan Elliott Practice Field. The
event, which will include admission to
Stanford’s open practice, behind-the
scenes tour of Stanford Stadium and
its locker room facilities, football skill
stations, a mini fan fest and player autographs, is free and open to the public. Fans will also have the opportunity
to take photos with the 2011 Orange
Bowl Trophy, an Andrew Luck cutout
and learn more about the upcoming
season and the Pac-12 Networks.
2012 football posters will be distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis
while supplies last. Fans will also have
the opportunity to select their seats
for new season ticket purchases.

Stanford freshman Maggie Steffens scored a tournament-high 21 goals
while helping Team USA wins its first ever gold medal in water polo.

Water polo

(continued from previous page)

USA Volleyball

Krikorian, who called an illegal timeout during the U.S.’s 11-9
overtime thriller against Australia
that nearly cost his team, can shrug
that off now as he became the first
American coach to lead an Olympic
water polo team, men or women, to
a gold medal since 1904.
That’s because his team rallied
in and out of the pool. The Americans are the only country to medal
in each of the four Olympic Games
in which women’s water polo was a
sport. Of course, that didn’t mean
anything Thursday when players
were awarded the gold.
Krikorian tried calling a timeout
with one second remaining of the
semifinal match. His team, however, did not have possession of the
ball, which becomes an automatic
penalty. Australia’s Southern Ash
converted the shot to tie it at 9 and
force overtime.
Krikorian thought his goalkeeper,
Betsy Armstrong, had control of the
ball.
“Everything happened so quickly,”
Krikorian said. “It went through my
mind that I might have blown it.”
The Aussies won the gold medal in
2000 after scoring in the final three
seconds of the gold medal match
against the U.S.

“We looked at each other and said
‘We’ve been through this before,’”
Steffens said. “Nothing is going
to affect us. We’re going to be the
team that finishes this. We knew that
whatever it came down to, we’re going to keep fighting.”
Steffens, leading the way on the
offensive end, made good on her
word. She put the U.S. ahead halfway
through the first of two three-minute
overtime periods, with a skip shot.
“She doesn’t play like a newcomer,” Krikorian said.
Kami Craig added a goal to finish
the scoring and give the Americans
another shot at their first gold medal
in the women’s event.
“I was feeling horrible,” Krikorian
said. “After it happened, it took me
a couple of minutes to take a deep
breath and realize what I had done
and get out of the funk.”
But the team’s response to his mistake, he said, was evidence of just
how much the squad has developed
since he took over in 2009.
“When you mess up, you’ve got to
own up to it,” Krikorian said. “They
came over and I said, ‘My bad.’ This
is not going to stop us. We’ve made
mistakes before and we’ve overcome
a lot of adversity over the last three
and a half years so one stupid call
by the coach isn’t going to affect the
team’s performance.”
He was right. The slip turned to
gold. N

Stanford grad Logan Tom, in her fourth Olympic Games, records a spike against South Korea in Thursday’s
semifinal.

Another golden opportunity
awaits American women
Unbeaten Team USA heads into finals of indoor volleyball tournament
tanford grad Logan Tom has
won a national title with Stanford women’s volleyball team.
Foluke Akinradewo did not, though
she played in the Final Four and
Championship matches.
They get a chance to share an
international championship after
beating South Korea, 25-20, 25-22,
25-22, in Thursday’s semifinal.
The team will play for the title
Saturday against the winner of a
later semifinal between Brazil and
Japan.
“It’s great to be in this position,”
U.S. middle blocker Christa Harmotto said. “It’s a position we’ve
worked for for four years, and we’re
exactly where we want to be.”
The top-ranked United States has
dropped just two sets in London. In
the latest victory, Destinee Hooker
scored 24 points.
The American women made it to
the final at the 2008 Beijing Games
but settled for the silver medal, falling 3-1 to Brazil. The team has won

S

silver twice and bronze once since
volleyball joined the Olympics in
1964. They’ve yet to win a gold.
The U.S. got an emotional boost
for the match with the return of captain Lindsey Berg, who was held out
of the team’s quarterfinal victory
over the Dominican Republic with
an injury to her lower left leg.
“It’s game time and I feel great,
and I don’t care how I feel after Saturday,” Berg said of the final, when
the Americans will face either Brazil or Japan for gold.
Fifteenth-ranked South Korea
upset No. 4 Italy in four sets Tuesday to advance before losing to the
Americans. South Korea’s best result in Olympic play came at the
1976 Montreal Games.
The United States has a 6-2 record against South Korea in Olympic matches, including a 3-1 U.S.
victory in the opening match of the
tournament.
The semifinal was tight at the
start, but the United States pulled

Kami Craig proved instrumental in the semifinal and championship games.

USA Volleyball

Maggie Steffens scores one of her five goals Thursday.
Page 30ÊUÊÕ}ÕÃÌÊ£ä]ÊÓä£ÓÊUÊ*>ÊÌÊ7iiÞÊUÊÜÜÜ°*>Ì"i°V

Stanford grad Foluke Akinradewo (middle) goes for a block in Team
USA’s three-set sweep of South Korea.

ahead 20-16 in the first set on Hooker’s kill. The South Koreans denied
the U.S. its first chance at set point
before Kim Yeon-koung’s serve
sailed out to give it to the Americans
for set point.
“I think we came out a little bit
tight to tell you the truth,” said Logan Tom, a four-time Olympian.
“We made some errors. We weren’t
moving very well. We didn’t have
our usual rhythm. I think we just
picked it up. We needed a little bit
of time to get accustomed to it. I
think we do a really good job when
it comes to that. I get nervous when
I don’t have a match like that.”
Jordan Larson’s spike made it 1510 in the third set, but South Korea
evened it at 18 on Kim’s ace. The
U.S. wouldn’t let the South Koreans take the lead. Hooker’s monster
spike set up Tom’s kill for match
point as the crowd at Earls Court
chanted “U-S-A! U-S-A!”
Berg, a three-time Olympian,
hurt her leg in the Americans’ final
preliminary-round match against
Turkey on Sunday, and the U.S.
kept quiet about when she might
return
Berg warmed up before the U.S.
women’s volleyball straight-set victory the Dominican Republic in the
quarterfinals on Tuesday night but
didn’t play. Courtney Thompson
started in her place.
After the match, U.S. coach Hugh
McCutcheon made a point of embracing Berg. It will be the second
straight Olympic final for McCutcheon, who guided the American men
to a gold medal in 2008.
“That’s great that she feels so positive about it,” McCutcheon said. “I
had time to give her a hug and tell
her nice job. If she feels good then
the rest of us do as well.” N

from behind in two.
The Americans posted three
consecutive shutouts before facing
Canada, which threatened to snap
the USA’s 26-game unbeaten streak
in the series.
In Monday’s semifinal, Cal grad
Alex Morgan scored in the second
overtime period to lift the U.S. to a
dramatic 4-3 victory over Canada.
Megan Rapinoe scored twice and

Olympic veteran Abby Wambach
converted a penalty kick in the
80th minute to set up overtime.
In the 123rd minute, the match
on the verge of going into a shootout, Morgan headed a cross
from Heather O’Reilly into
the back of the net to give the
U.S. its first lead of the match.
Christine Sinclair, who scored
all three goals, gave the Canadians the early advantage,
scoring in the 22nd minute.
Stanford grad Kelley O’Hara,
the left outside back, contin-

for that match than any other.”
The celebration began when the
two-time defending champions fell
to their knees and hugged as Ross’
final serve went long on match
point. Then it turned viral.
The Athens, Beijing and now
London gold medalists remained
unbeaten through three Olympiads.
It was the Olympic farewell for
May-Treanor, who has said she
would like to have children.
May-Treanor and Walsh Jennings, three-time FIVB SWATCH
World Champions (2003, 2005,
2007) leave with an unparalleled
Olympic record of 21 consecutive
match wins without a loss (7-0 this
year) and a 42-1 won-loss record in
Olympic sets, led this yearís Games
as a team in blocks with 25 and digs
with 151.
Individually, May-Treanor led in
digs with 107 and was tied for second in points with 125 while Walsh

ued her streak of playing every minute of every match, one
of three U.S. players to do so.
She was forced to step off the
field in overtime after a collision
forced her to receive treatment.
O’Hara sparked several attacks up
the left flank, and Cardinal grad Rachel Buehler, who was replaced in the
second overtime shortly after landing awkwardly in another collision,
was a stalwart in central defense.
The Americans outshot the Canadians 18-9, though both countries got
seven shots on goal. N

Carli Lloyd is about to get mobbed by Alex Morgan
and Kelley O’Hara after scoring her first goal.

led the Olympics with 24 blocks.
“They are the best team of alltime,” said Kessy, “and it doesnít
hurt too bad to be second to them.”
Men’s water polo
The U.S. men’s water polo team
season came to an abrupt end
Wednesday in the quarterfinal of
the 2012 London Olympic.
This time
the Americans,
led by Stanford
grads Tony
Azevedo, Peter
Varellas, Peter
Hudnut and
Layne Beaubien, won’t
get the chance
to appear in a
medal game Tony Azevedo
after dropping
an 8-2 decision to Croatia.
“I’m really searching for answers,” U.S. center forward Ryan
Bailey said. “We had a great training, we’ve been together for seven
to eight months training, just our-

Carli Lloyd celebrates her second goal of Team USA’s 2-1 win over
Japan on Thursday.

London2012

(continued from page 29)

London2012

Soccer

London2012

California grad Alex Morgan scored the game winning goal during the Americans’ 4-3 overtime win over
Canada in Monday’s semifinal.

selves, getting in great shape. Physically we’re fantastic, best we’ve ever
been. And then we came out and
kind of laid an egg in some of these
games. I have no excuses.
Croatia put an early end to the
Americans’ Olympic campaign with
a sterling performance at both ends
of the pool.
“We came into this Olympics
wanting and thinking that we would
win a medal, and we really haven’t
performed. I don’t take anything
away from Croatia, those guys
played their butts off and played
great defense and completely shut
us down on six-on-five. They’re a
great team, but we just didn’t have
it today.”
The Americans didn’t have it really any day at the London Olympics. Other than an opening 8-7 win
against Montenegro, a veteran U.S.
team that boasts 10 players from the
2008 squad never really showed up
in London, struggling defensively
and sputtering in big games offensively.
“We came out hard, we played

Japan’s Yuki Ogimi is challenged by Rachel Buehler during the USA’s 2
to 1 victory over Japan in the Gold medal game Thursday.
hard, I can’t fault the effort out there.
It’s just our shots weren’t falling and
sometimes that’s how it goes,” Bailey said. “You hope it’s not in the
quarterfinals of the Olympics, but
sometimes that’s how it happens.”
The loss brings an end to the international career of many of the
Americans, Bailey’s included, and
starts what will likely be a bit of
a rebuilding
phase for the
U.S. team.
“We’re going
to lose a number of these
guys, a number of them are
going to retire,
and the next
generation is
going to have Arantxa King
some big footprints to fill in,” U.S. coach Terry
Schroeder said. “We chose a team
that was an older team, and thought
that experience would give us our
best chance, but it didn’t work out.”

Track and field
Stanford grad Arantxa King,
competing for Bermuda, finished
sixth in her qualifying group of the
long jump to narrowly miss advancing to the finals.
King matched Belarus’ Veronika
Shutkova, each at 21-0, but King’s
+0.3 wind-aided jump kept her from
advancing. Shutkova’s reading was
-0.1.
Stanford grad Jillian CamarenaWilliams finished eighth in her
group of the women shot put qualification round at the summer Olympics on Monday.
Camarena-Williams’ best effort was 59-7 3/4, off her personal
best by over six feet, and just under
her 59-8 1/2 from the 2008 Beijing
Olympic Games where she finished
12th overall.
Synchronized swimming
Stanford junior Maria Koroleva,
with partner Mary Killman, finished 11th overall Tuesday in women’s pair. The scored a combined
175.670. N